The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-04-29

front of the school buildings cheer
ing, waving flags and singing pa
triotic songs and TASK me" men and
women were always at hand to an
swer the many questions asked.
Fruit Juice to Drink
Fruit juice!I Iced fruit juice, made
from the juice Of sweet oranges and
grapefruit; there was barrels of it,
and our Threats were never allowed
to become dry. John Freeman said
he averaged six glasses at every
town and | believed him until after
l saw his capacity in Cuba.
At Mount Dora l met l.. R. Trtmain
a product of Blue Earth, Mimi, who
came to Florida many years ago
SAINT half hour.
day and we heard and saw much
that l can not tell about here. Our
driver was thoroughly familiar with
the country and gave us many good
laughs at his clever sayings. When
we drove into Mineola he said:
Have you heard of Jim Heddon's
bait? That little bungalow on the
right is where he lives most of the
time, fashioning lures out of wood
about the size of fish you CATCH"
Our train arrived at Lakeland in
Polk county early in the evening and
while we were at supper, who should
walk in TO greet us, but Mr.. and
Mrs. II. L. Collins, formerly of Min
neapolis. Mr.. Collins is the origin
ator and manufacturer of Collins
grapefruit candy and bottled grape
fruit juice. We spent a pleasant
Mrs. Tompkins for ride about the
city and l sought my berth to get
as much rest as possible for our
train was to leave for Bradentown
at the usual hour of departure, 11:55.
Wednesday, March Is. we stepped
off the train at Bradentown. the
home of George Hosmer and imme
diately discovered that he was more
popular even with the home folks
than he was with us, and he was
lace high" with all Of us.
Breakfast was served Immediately
upon our arrival in the city and by
nine o'clock We were on our way
for an auto trip through the city and
Manatu county, one of the greatest
citrus fruit and truck gardening Sec
tons of the state.
Our host and driver for the day
was w. N. Hubbell, returned SOL
der. who until six years ago was a
resident of Iowa. Mr.. Hubbell has
seventy acre farm across the Mana
tn river from Bradentown near Pal
metto. In addition)h has a twenty
acre grapefruit grove on the coast
and ten acre orange grove. He
took us to his home to meet his sis
tiers. and to his groves where he
picked and ate sweet oranges and
grapefruit to our hearts content;
and the ladies loaded themselves
with fra nt nran hlnSSnmS
Enjoyed the Trip Immensely
Our travelling companions for the
day were the genial Mr.. and Mrs.
Frank w. Murphy of Wheaton and
the day being ideal, the gait slow,
the roads all hard surfaced and our
companions agreeable. we enjoyed
every moment of the time.
We were taken to see the great
fields of celery and tomatoes and
district, then to a fishing village
down the coast (its fragrance will
long be rememberedl for a Spanish
mackeral luncheon. Then to see the
great nurseries which are tropical
indeed. Back to Bradentown and
across the river to Palmetto and
through the great citrus fruit groves,
the largest of which contained 800
acres. This section is so much far
most of the fruit had been picked
and marketed, but some trees were
still carrying such a load of fruit
that their branches touched the
ground. We visited the site of the
sugar mill which supplied most of
the sugar for the confederacy and
which Union gunboats destroyed
from the river. Only the huge chin
ney now remains and this is used
oh
erected since the war.
A banquet was served and an in
teresting short program rendered in
the evening under big tent at Pal
metto. Speeches were limited to
four minutes and it was gratifying
to note that there were four Mime
sofa men on the program. We were
again informed that our special would
leave at 11:55 but were asleep long
until called for breakfast at Pierce
Thursday morning, March IT,, st,
Patrtck's Day.
We will long remember March II
and Is, 1921, when We toured Polk
county. and We were certainly glad
that George Hosmer didn't forget to
bring us back to this garden spot
where the roads are all paved, the
towns all alive and the people most
generous.
Pride in the Roads
Residents Of Polk county take
pardonable pride in the magnificent
system of hard surfaced roads which
connect every town in the county.
There are now nearly 400 miles of
these roads in the county and more
in process of building. The main
highways through the county be-
tween principal points are sixteen
feet in width. Connecting and inter
iacing with them are a series of
roads with nine foot asphalt sur
face and clay shoulders, all carefully
graded and drained.
Breakfast was served in one of
the new buildings of the Pierce
Phosphate Mines company, under the
direction of Manager Burdette LOO
mis- Of the Mines company and W.
K. Warburton of the Oaks hotel of
Barlow. then it was "all aboard the
train Of fat cars, provided with
temporary wooden ratings, from
which we viewed the big phosphate
mines. The train after leaving the
mine was backed up to the High
land Oaks stock farm where we were
met by the motorcade consisting or
more than one hundred automobiles,
two trouble cars and several emer-
gency emptieS. The motorcade was