Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1924-12-04

Nevada, and New Mexico.
| Men carrying the greatest names
In the country are here every win
ter and most of them own their
homes, Chauncy M. .Depew has made
St. Augustine his headquarters for
many years, and our honored Presi-
dent Harding was his neighbor
there. John D. Rockefeller and his
| illustrious son and namesake have
their winter homes a little further
down the east coast. Palm Beach
and Miami have rich families galore.
Mr.. Edison, Mr.. Ford and Mr.. Fire
stone are settled with properties at
Fort Myers, and at Sarasota John
Ringing, the Snowman, has great
possessions, and is now completing,
the reports say, the finest mansion
for his family and old age, in the
whole United States.
When | first visited Florida, some
northern people told me Florida was
good for nothing but to raise snakes
and mosquitoes, but / thought them
mistaken, and think SO STILL Flor
ida is land of almost infinite pro-
ductiveness. Everything that grows
out of the ground, from the equator
to the poles, can be, grown in Flor
ida, and is grown, and produced
wherever it is faithfully tried. Let
me mention the crops of the present
year set forth in u. N. S. Agricul-
tural reports. Corn 12,500,000
bushels, California never did it.
Cotton, $4,000 bales. Peanuts, 48
million pounds. Irish potatoes, g.
$4,000 bushels. Sweet potatoes,
3 3,115;000 bushels Citrus fruits,
22,000,000 boxes. Tobacco, $780,
600 pounds. Oats, 465, 900 bushels.
Rice $4,000 bushels. Syrup, 140,-
600 gallons. Cabbage, 10000 cars
have been sent out of the state to
market. Besides what I have men
toned, an immense crop OF toma-
toes, of pineapples, Of egg plant,
celery, lettuce. beans, peas, peppers,
cucumbers, squash, beets and radish-
es are produced and marketed. Ap-
pies do well in West Florida, banan-
as do we'll, as do guavas, in the
southern portions of the state.
Dairy farms, furnishing milk to
cities and villages, are very success
full, and poultry farms, to furnish
eggs and poultry for the cities, are
being established all over the state
A wheat farm in Ohio rarely
yields more than $50 per acre for a
wheat crop, but no year passes here
that some planters do not report
profit of a thousand dollars an acre.
1t has been done with tomatoes, with
beans, with peas, with celery and
Strawberries. Five hundred dollars
an acre has been realiZ. from Irish
potatoes. No one expec.s to get such
crops or prices all the time but they
are every year realized by some.
The rise in real estate has made
many rich families. Thirty years
ago land just outside of towns could
have been picked MP for from $40 to
$50 per acre, that now brings from
$500 to IS, 900 per acre Seventeen
years ago, a man bought two lots
full OF weeds in the then business
part of Jacksonville. He recorded
his deed, paid his taxes, and waited
for Is years, and two years ago
took 100000 cash for the two lots
Lots at Miami are selling at prices
that were the wonder of New York
City a few years ago.
Florida is NO place for indOIent,
fault finding, quarrelsome people,
but for ambitious, industrious,
thrifty, teaehable, persevering fam
lilies it is prominently the Mecca of
America.