Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1927-03-03
WINTER HAVEN, FLORIDA.
IL GREAT CITRUS CENTER

] Winter Haven. They would like to
know something besides what kind
| of weather We have here, which we
assure you has been fine this win
| ter. Just when We are getting let
| ters from Ohio telling US about the
big snow, We are enjoying the sun
shine and al the glories OF being
outdoors all day long. Go to the
park any day and you will find many
different kinds of games going on
barn yard golf, checkers and shut
fie board being the favorites. and
the players as enthusiastic as if they
were school children, instead Of ell
derly men and women who have
earned few weeks vacation, after
years of strenuous work in many
fields of endeavor.
But to get back to the city itself
Winter Haven, the Citrus Capt.
tai of the World is situated in cen
trail Polk county, Florida, 200 miles
southwest Of Jacksonville, the gate
way of the state. and 48 miles east
of Tampa the great port of the Gulf
of Mexico. The city now claims
population of 5000 people. the pop
glation having grown enormously
in the past few years. Winter
Haven for many years has been
known as The City OF a Hundred
Lakes there being 81 beautiful
bodies OF water located within a
radius Of five miles OF the center OF
the town. Twenty-three of these
lakes are connected by channels,
making a continuous boat course of
over rs miles. The city has near
ly 100 miles of water frontage,
probably the longest water front OF
any city OF the same size in the
world. Winter Haven has been
designated by the New York Times
as "A yeritable Island in the midst
of q tropical sea- The name and
fame of the lakes of Winter Haven
have been broadcast throughout the
country and there is probably no
small city in America that has re-
ceiyed more favorable publicity
through its geographical setting.
It has many bids for fame, but the
chief one is its citrus industry.
There are over 80 counties in the
state OF Florida that grow citrus
fruit, but Polk county, in which
Winter Haven is situated, ships 22
per cent Of the total, and Winter
Haven ships nearly one-half of the
Polk county output. In other words
Winter Haven ships one of every
ten boxes of fruit that goes out of
the state. There are five packing
houses within the city limits, and
eight more within radius of FIVE
miles engaged solely in packing and
shipping oranges. grapefruit and
tangerines. The past season these
houses shipped 1,750,000 boxes of
fruit, or approximately one-half of
the county's output. The houses
within the city limits Of Winter
Haven shipped practically 1,000.000
boxes, exceeding any other point in
the state by several hundred thou
sand boxes Two of the packing
houses in this city are among the
largest in the state-in fact, one of
them is the largest citrus packing
house in the world. This is the
house Of the Winter Haven Citrus
Exchange which has maximum ca
pacity of % cars day. The house
of the Florence Villa Exchange,
within the city limits, has capacity
OF 22 cars a day. while that of the
Winter Haven Growers. Inc, also N
the city, is the largest Independent
packing house in Florida, with
capacity of 16 cars a day. The
packing houses of Winter Haven
and vicinity have a total value IN
cluding buildings and equipment OF
over 100000. There are within
the five mile radius of Winter Ha-
ven more than 10000 acres of
groves of which $4,000 are in the
immediate Winter Haven territory.
83 percent of the $4,000 acres are
in bearing condition. The average
yearly production of the entire sec
tion is considerably in excess OF a
million and a half boxes, and in one
year (1922) the total exceeded two
million boxes.
The Importance of the citrus in
dustry is shown by the fact that
last year the growers of the Sec
tion received nearly s4,000,000 net
for their fruit, while an additional
$2.000,O00 represented the money
unloaded in the community for pick
ing, packing, shipping charges, cost
of packing house equipment and
crate materials. The grove work
and fertilizer bills included in the
last item, are said to have repre-
sented more than $650,0GO cash.
Winter Haven has always been re-
garded as the citrus center Of Flor
ida. 1t has high altitude (the aV-
erage being more than 200 feet
above sea leveD, and with its many
lakes has splendid protection
against cold spells. This had led
to the development of the citrus in
dustry on scale unapproached in
any other section of the state. The
largest citrus nursery in the world
the Glen st. Mary Nurseries Com
pany. is located at Winter Haven,
having several hundred acres plant
ed in young citrus trees. Several
other large nurseries have been 10
Gated here in the past few years
these having since merged with the
Glen st. Mary Company.
Farming has not yet received
much attention in this section, but
experiments ts--eondncte in recent
years indicate that many kinds of
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