The Ocala banner., 1922-07-28
cITRA COMING INTO POSSESSION
OF HER. OWN
Old Orange Groves Being Enlarged
And New Ones Being Planted -

! Fifty-one years ago the orange in.
dustry of Florida had its birth at Citra
There were a few trees here and
there before that time and one or two
groves of a few acres each but none
were grown for profit
We are glad that Citra is making
efforts to regain and retain her pre-
eminence
The following article taken from
late issue of the Florida Times
Union will show what she is doing
in that direction:
Citra. home of the pineapple or
ange." is moving forward New de-
yelopments in this attractive and his
toric hammock town where the ia
nous pineapple orange originated.
included large citrus packing house,
bank, an increase in the acreage
in orange groves and a projected elec-
trio light, ice and cold storage plant
A new company, the Crosby-Wart-
mann Packing Company has broken
ground on beautiful site at the
junction of the Seaboard Air Line and
the Atlantic Coast Line railroads i'm
mediately north of Citra for an or
ange packing house 20 by $50 feet.
The packing house will be equipped
with the very latest machinery and
will have a capacity of three cars of
fruit day. The officers of the COM
pany are Mr.. E. L. Wartmann, presi-
dent and treasurer: Mr.. w j. Crosby.
secretary and manager, Citra, and
Mr.. ". T. L. Carpenter and Mr.. Ken
NTH H. Day. directors. New York
city. The fruit of the famous Bishop
Hoyt grove. owned by Crosby and
Wartmann. will be packed in the new
house as we'll as the fruit from osher
groves here. Crosby and Wartmann
will put out their fruit in a pack
even more attractive than heretofore
and all Of their new labels will carry
the words Citra, Marion County, Flor
ida
Crosby and Wartn, ann added TWEEN
ty-five acres to their groves this
spring and now have 200 acres-1OO
in bearing trees and 100 acres are
young trees. Many of the trees in
budded on the wild orange roots found
in the hammocks around Citra. The
groves are in splendid condition and
are beautiful to look at. That the
Citra section is ideal for citrus fruits
is shown by a three-year grove on the
Crosby-Wartmann property. At two
years old this grove of about eight
acres produced forty-six boxes of
fruit
This season in IT'S third year the
grove Will produce about 200 boxes.
The growth of these trees within a
years time has been remarkable.
Mr.. John L. Edwards, Ocala, and
Mr.. W. ]. Crosby, of Citra, have pur-
chased the John S. Wychoff grove To-
Gated in the old Spanish grant here.
The property contains twenty-four
acres on which there are pineapple
orange trees amounting to about ten
acres in grove. The new owners will
I'LL out the entire twenty-four acres.
The handsome bank of Cftra opened
Thursday. The banks new build
ing is completed and it is ex-
pected that the fixtures will be in
place in time for the opening.
An electric light. ice and cold stor-
age plant for Citra Is being promoted.
1t is planned that the plant will not
only furnish light for Citra's homes
and streets, but win furnish lights
for Island Grove across Orange Lake
and furnish power for the orange
packing houses at Citra The plant
is being planned with a cold storage
capacity of 100000 pounds.
A considerable part of the stock of
the company which proposes to build