Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-05-25
Size and Production of Florida.

Florida has 35,1l1,040 acres; IN
actual cultivation, 1,636,9S3, leaving
not in actual cultivation 33, 474,057
acres. The. total assessed value of
real property for 1913 was $685.
75O,566, and for personal property,
S69,S1 500, making a total of $685.
,566,O75. According to the State Bu-
reau of Markets the total crop val
ue for 1919 was $131, 100000 There
are fifteen thousand men engaged in
the fish industries of the state. Flori-
da shipped 66,792 car loads of fruit
and vegetables last year. Livestock,
dairying and poultry products
amounted to $26,OOO,O00.
The number of native and in tro-
duced trees of Florida is two hundred
and eighty and the number of diff
ferent kind of birds of the state is
three hundred and fifty, and of fish,
six hundred and fifty. The flora of
Florida is so extensive that no one
as yet has completed a comprehen-
sive work on it.
The counties of Florida spent in
three years, ending September, 1919,
s17.Os5, ,432.sO on roads and bridges.
(South Carolina bow your head in
holy horror.)
Some people think of Florida as
an orange orchard, lake or an ever
glade. The greatest acreage planted
to any one crop in the State is grain,
corn. Practically the entire northwes-
tern section is adapted to general
farming, which includes corn, hay,
peanuts, tobacco, velvet beans, cow
peas, oats, rape sugar cane, sorghum,
pasture grasses, cotton, livestock and
fruits. 1t is the northwest portion of
the state that produces most of the
feed stuff. The muck lands of the
state-which are not confined to the
everglades-are splendid lands for
corn, cane, vegetables, etc. They were
once the bottoms of the lakes, and are
very rich in plant food. The 17,OO0,-
900 bushels of corn produced in
1917 could be easily quadrupled by
bringing under cultivation splendid
grain lands by drainage in counties
where corn is already grown. The
peanut is the second largest crop of
the state, the production in 1913 be-
ing over five million bushels. The vel
vet bean has grown in favor, and the
crop is about 100000 bushels a
year. The beggar weed is splendid
leguminous plant that furnishes good
grazing and hay. The present crop of
sweet potatoes will exceed 100000
bushels. Last years crop of tobac-
co was 100000 pounds. Peanuts,
3,4O2,000 bushels. Florida now has
four grain elevators, located at Mar
ianna, Jacksonville, Greenwood and
Tallahassee. Some of these handle
velvet beans ,ccwpeas, peanuts and
cotton seed in the same manner as
corn. The value of exports passing
through Jacksonville is more than
ss,ooO,oO0 s1,OOO,oOO of which was
peanut meal and mixed feeds. The
naval stores and lumber exports
through Key West in 1919 amounted
to $4,000, 900 each. Key West, Miami,
Jacksonville on the south and east
are ports where Florida produce is
interchanged with the ports of the
world.
One of the great crops raised in
the state is the citrus crop. Florida
shipped in 1919 about 12,000,O0O
boxes of citrus fruit. iPinellos coun-
ty, though the smallest county in the
state in size, shipped one-twelfth of
the citrus crop of the state. The To-
cation of Pinellos county, between
the great bodies of water, Tampa
Bay on the east and the Gulf of Mex
leo on the west, produces a beneficial
effect on citrus fruit and places at
minimum the danger from frost. The
muck lands of this county have hun
dreds of acres of fine garden and
truck lands available and only await
the man who will see the opportuni-
ty and take advantage of the rich
soils and plant.
/ have travelled extensively in the
state and will venture to say that
Florida has made greater progress
along all lines for the last twenty-five
years than any other state in the
union. While nature has done won
ders for the state, man and money