opyright by William L. Larkin, Publisher.
Florida Land Opportunities
HE Florida East Coast Railroad in
extending its new lines to Lake
Okeechobee, Chuluota and Kenansville,
opened up some of the best lands in Florida
Some of the nchest agricultural lands in America
are located on this new extension. The Florida East
Coast Railroad developments make it possible for
farmers to own and cultivate this land with profit.
The Land department will offer homeseekers and
home-builders some very attractive land on very easy
terms. hese lands are adapted to the production
of practically all general farm crops, as well as
citrus and other fruits and early vegetables.
] The Florida East Coast Railroad has opened the
| door of opportunity for farmers in the Okeechobee,
| Chuluota and Kenansville region that have rarely
been equalled in America.
] Besides these new offerings, we have many attrac-
tive farm properties on the main line of the Florida
East Coast Railroad between Jacksonville and Key
West, along the Mantanzas River, Indian River,
Bay Biscayne and Cape Sable.
We furnish descriptive matter of these properties, which
is yours for the asking. Address
J. E. INGRAHAM
Vice-President F. E. C. Railroad ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA.
72745)
Fels
Florida’s Most Progressive Bank
RESOURCES $5,000,000.00
CAPITAL RS SURPLUS
$1,000,000 Magan itainel § = $250,000
NO NOTICE
PAID ON , mea OF
SAVINGS — - WITHDRAWAL
ACCOUNTS : = 7 REQUIRED
@ Whether or not you are now a citizen of Florida, you
are invited to visit this bank. Here you will find a
friendly interest in the welfare of every individual of
thrift and integrity who comes.
-@ On the Savings Ledgers of this institution we carry the
accounts of individuals from every part of this country who have
availed themselves of the liberal interest rate of 49% per annum,
compounded quarterly. No notice of withdrawal required.
@ You can open a Savings Account with this bank by
mail, even if you are less fortunate than some and never have the
opportunity to know personally the truth about Florida.
THE HEARD NATIONAL BANK
¢ JACKSONVILLE : FLORIDA
Three
Four
Reason for Publishing ‘‘Truth About Florida’’
A desire to render a valuable service to over 100,000 American citizens
who have purchased land in Florida during the past two years, many of
whom have never seen their holdings, and also to render a service to thou-
sands of prospective land buyers who are anxious to know the truth from
noted public officials and writers of authority whose knowledge of condi-
tions and public statements cannot be questioned.
If you have purchased muck, marl, hummock, prairie or flat woods
land near markets, that can be cleared, drained or cropped at a reasonable
cost, don’t sell your holdings. They are bound to double in value and
taxes in Florida are exceptionally low on account of the economical admin-
istration of public affairs. The tax rate is about one-third of what it is on
similar land in many of the northern states that are colonizing.
WILLIAM L. LARKIN, Publisher.
Se RR (coca
Ihe Jruth About
saci § Glopida =
CONTENTS
Cosmopolitan Florida - - By Hon. Park Trammell
Governor
The Development of Florida By Hon. W. S. Jennings
Ex-Governor
Progressive Florida - By Hon, A. W. Gilchrist
Hx-Governor
Florida and the Better Ways By Edgar Lucien Larkin
Director, Lowe Observatory
Author of Within the Mind Maze
Railroads as Principle Factors in Florida’s Development
~ 4 - - - - - - By J. E. Ingraham
Vice-President, F. E. C. Ry. Co.
Producing Beef in Florida - - - By The Observer
The World’s Food Problem By William L. Larkin
Growing Sugar Cane in Florida By Capt. R. E. Rose
State Chemist
Florida and Her Great Opportunities - By W. A. McRae
Commissioner of Agriculture
Fertilization of Florida Soils By Mrs. M. N. G. Prange
Gardening in Florida - - By Walter Waldin
Making Farm Land in Florida By William L. Larkin
©cia3s91316
JAN 11 1915
Cosmopolitan Florida
By HON. PARK TRAMMELL
Governor of Florida
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
OWHERE in the world, perhaps, are the natural conditions more favorable to
N the development of a happy and prosperous citizenship than in Florida,
This is particularly true with respect to the state’s balmy climate, her fertile
soil and favored geographical position. For some years Florida’s growth has been
marvelous and the state has received thousands of industrious and desirable white
settlers from other states and countries. Floridians
welcome these new comers and rejoice at their com-
ing to assist in the development of the state. The
people of America are now looking to the South
and it is a source of profound gratification to feel
that the movement towards Florida is only well
begun and that this movement is bound to con-
tinue with increasing force and enthusiasm for
years to come.
The resources of Florida are very extensive
and remarkably diversified. They offer great op-
portunities for the advancement and enrichment of
all who apply themselves to their development,
Florida is the greatest all-the-year-round com-
mercial fruit and vegetable-growing section in
America. She is the largest producer of naval stores
HON. PARK TRAMMELL. in the United States; she is the largest producer
of phosphates in the world. She supplies a great
proportion of the sea island cotton, which is now so valuable in the manufacture
of rubber tires for autos and other motor trucks, and her short staple cotton reaches
into the millions of dollars. Her timber and lumber resources have already assumed
enormous proportions and are capable of very much greater development. Her
fish and oyster industries constitute a source of great wealth and her sponge fisher-
ies are the most valuable on the American coast.
Certain sections of the state are noted for the production of wrapper tobacco
which rivals that imported from Cuba. It has long been said that Florida’s soil
can supply the entire country with its needs of sugar.
Florida stands in the forefront of American states with regard to the exceed-
ingly important matter of educational, religious and civic progress. Her public
school system has been raised and is kept upon a high standard of efficiency. The
state maintains splendid institutions for the higher education of her youth, in addi-
tion to which there are in Florida a number of very excellent private and denomina-
tional colleges and universities. The people are law-abiding and God-fearing, and
a large number of religious denominations are well represented in the state’s popu-
lation. This population is perhaps more cosmopolitan than that of any southern
state and is progressive along all lines.
The man in business seldom appreciates how absolutely dependent he is upon
the soil. Everything he eats and wears comes from it. The farmer is the original
producer and it is only the surplus from the farms that the city man does business
upon. When crops are good and the surplus large business is good. When the
crops are short business is poor. That there is a new era dawning for the farmer
is no idle dream. We have come to realize that farming requires great skill, knowl-
edge, business ability, and it is not a vocation for the uneducated. In no line of
work does the application of intelligence count for more than in farming. There
are many successful farmers in our state. If you inquire into the secret of their
success you will always find they increased their earning power by cultivating the
soil intelligently. We can never know too much about the best methods of carry-
ing on our life work.
Five
Development of Florida
By HON. W. S. JENNINGS, Ex-Governor of Florida
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
ANY things have been written relating to Florida and her wonderful climate,
the productiveness of her soil, the value of her products on the markets of
the world, ofttimes to be doubted by the uninformed. Comparatively few
people have really traveled over Florida’s great domain, and fewer sufficiently to
understand the real values that seem to lie dormant in many varied lines of endeavor.
Readers are not always interested in the same
subject matter, nor do they seek information along
the same lines, and therefore any article written
concerning the development of Florida could not
hope to interest but a comparatively few people. If
all were interested in the orange and citrus fruit
culture more space than | could assume to occupy
could be filled with most interesting and valuable
information touching this wonderful industry in
Florida and its great value to the people. On the
other hand, if your readers were interested only in
vegetable growing, in which Florida excels both
in productiveness and value, a book could be written
on this line of resources and development.
The architect and builder would be interested
in Florida’s development on account of the varied
HON. W. S. JENNINGS, lines of architecture and constructure sought for in
ee ER Florida. The capitalist finds opportunity on every
hand until his greatest difficulty seems to be in choosing from the many oppor-
tunities offered.
No state holds greater opportunity for the thrifty and frugal homeseeker and
homebuilder. This does not mean that the unsuccessful and unprepared people
can find fortunes garnered for their convenience, only to be picked up upon arrival
from some far away clime on a fast train, but should be understood to mean only
an opportunity offered for those willing to exert themselves and make some reason-
able effort upon informed and intelligent lines to entitle them to share in the
values that Florida’s opportunity, her soil and climatic condition produces.
It is stated by a recent writer that “The dawn of history in our state is full of
romance. Ambition and avarice, desire for advancement and love each played
a part in its exploration and exploitation. Some came expecting to find every stream
a Pactolus, and all the sands glittering with gems.” This serves to illustrate the
varied expectations of uninformed people concerning Florida.
Something of the growth and development of Florida, however, may be gleaned
from history and public documents, in way of comparison. It should be borne in
mind that Florida was purchased under a valuation of $5,000,000 in 1819, less than
100 years ago; whereas last year’s vegetable crop in Florida alone was estimated
to be three times greater in value than the total value of both East and West
Florida in 1819.
Attention is called to the development in Florida of our educational oppor-
tunities and a slight comparison which will serve to indicate the advancement along
educational lines. In 1860 there were only nine schools in Florida of a public
character with less than 1,000 pupils. The private schools numbered 138, as shown
by a census of 1860, with an attendance of 4,000 pupils. At this time there are more
than 3,000 public schools, maintained at an expense to the public of approximately
$2,000,000 annually, with more than 100,000 students. Almost every county in
Florida has one or more high schools and every county has many graded schools.
In addition to these, we have for higher education: The State University, State
College for Women, John B. Stetson University, Columbia College and other ex-
cellent institutions of learning, which place Florida in the foreground among edu-
cational states, with. an educational spirit equal to the best.
Another evidence of Florida’s development is indicated by a comparison of
growth in population. The census of 1860 showed that Florida had a population
of 140,439, which, of course, included slaves at that date equal in number to one-
half of the state’s population. The census for 1911 was 777,900. Further estimates
indicate a population at this time of about 40 per cent increase since 1910, or a
population of 1,000,000.
The assessed valuation of property may indicate to those inclined to review
comparisons along this line something of the progress Florida is making. In 1894,
the total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Florida was less than
$90,000,000. The total assessed valuation of property in 1914 is estimated at
$300,000,000. In 1880 there were 518 miles of railroad in Florida. Today there is
upwards of 5,000 miles.
During the same year the total bank deposits in Florida were $287,289. In
1914 they exceeded $30,000,000. The value of farm lands and improvements in 1880
was $20,000,000; in 1914, $200,000,000, notwithstanding the fact that less than 8 per
cent of the area is in cultivation.
Twenty years ago had some one dipped his pen into imagination and written as
a prophecy one-half that has actually come to pass in Florida during the past two
decades, he would be called a dreamer of dreams, too wild to be even entertained.
To predict the future seems pardonable when looking into the past as a guide.
The brief outline above can serve to indicate the wonderful comparative
progress in all lines of endeavor, some of which have been mentioned; others, ap-
parently too many to enumerate here, should be considered and are known to those
familiar with Florida conditions.
Thirty years ago the middle and lower peninsula was almost an unbroken
wilderness. Twenty years ago orange and citrus fruit crops in Florida were less
than 500,000 boxes. Now it is predicted that the crop will yield 9,000,000 boxes.
Many of the villages of 20 years ago are now thriving cities, and great portions
of the wilderness of 20 years ago are now dotted over with thriving towns, beautiful
farms and groves, many miles of hard surfaced roads, and the happy homes of a
prosperous and contented people. This is only part of the growth of 20 years.
Who can, with any certainty, predict the future of the state?
It has for its known resources inexhaustible beds of phosphate, immense
deposits of kaolin clay and fuller’s earth, great citrus industry, its: rapidly growing
vegetable producing territory, forests, and possibilities of pecan and fig industries,
wonderful opportunity for raising stock from the fact that cattle, sheep and hogs
need but little and inexpensive protection against the weather and the ease with
which animals are raised and the further fact that this condition is becoming rapidly
understood, not only by the stock men in Florida, but by those of the North and
West, and confirms the belief that Florida will eventually become one of the greatest
producers of beef, pork, mutton, butter and cheese in the union.
The experiments that have been tested in Florida in growing forage crops
solves the problem of raising cattle. The conditions that exist in Florida are most
encouraging. Several new grasses have been found that grow continuously through-
out the year in parts of Florida, and abundantly in other parts of Florida, furnishing
a vast amount of feed throughout the year. Besides this, the velvet beans, the
Chinese sugar cane, Kaffir corn, etc., are among the best cattle feed grown, and
can be grown with ease.
Mr. G. M. Grace of 101 Ranch in Oklahoma, an admitted authority on cattle
raising, says that Florida has the very best of opportunities of any state in the
Union for raising cattle; that the facilities in Florida for raising cattle are better
than in any other state in the Union, and that with the supply of beef constantly
growing less and with prices yearly advancing, and the demand increasing with the
rapidly increasing population, Florida will become among the great cattle growing
states.
The Commissioner of Agriculture reported (in 1909) that Florida produced
4,351,000 bushels of corn valued at $3,409,000, this exceeding in value any other
single farm crop. Since which time it is estimated that the 1913 crop yielded up-
wards of 11,000,000 bushels of corn, which makes general farming, particularly in
the upper counties in Florida, as productive to the real farmer as the average
farm lands of the middle West.
Experience of the past has shadowed forth the future, and a few years will see
Florida producing millions of pounds of sugar, increasing her general farming pro-
ductions, and she will be leading in stock raising, her rice will be in every market
and her fruits and vegetables will supply the wants of the less favored sections,
while her fish and oysters will be in every hamlet in the land. These are the products
Florida can promise from her land and her water.
These may serve to indicate the development of Florida with only 8 per cent of
her land under cultivation.
Seven
Eight
Progressive Florida
By ALBERT W. GILCHRIST, Ex-Governor of Florida
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
nation. Within its boundaries lie 35,000,000 acres and only 8 per cent of this
vast area has been developed. Here is a haven for the homeseekers of the
world. Few persons realize the true size of Florida on looking at the ordinary map.
As an example, the distance from Chicago to Mobile, Ala., by rail is 910 miles.
From Flomation, a small station near the northwest
corner of Florida, by rail to Key West, via Jackson-
ville, is 934 miles, or 24 miles farther than from Chi-
cago to Mobile.
The state extends 420 miles directly north and
south. Its eastern boundary is the Atlantic Ocean;
on the west, a great portion of it is touched by the
Gulf of Mexico.
By reason of its geographical location and cli-
matic conditions, with 1,200 miles of sea coast, Flor-
ida stands alone among the states of the Union.
In my opinion, and in the opinion of many agri-
cultural experts, it leads them all. Its soil and
climate render it friendly to the production of corn,
oats, sugar cane, long and short cotton and all kinds
of vegetables, tropical and semi-tropical fruits.
HON. A. W. GILCHRIST, It is one of the most healthful states of North
EX-GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA America. The death rate, according to the last,
census of the state, is 6.6 per 1,000. The registration area of the United States,
including the New England states, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and the Dis-
trict of Columbia, has a death rate of 17.8 per 1,000. In England, Scotland and Wales
it is 18, while in Italy the rate is 21.1. To my mind one of the most important mat-
ters for investigation by the prospective settler is this question of health.
Much attention is being given in many of the western states to irrigation. There
is no part of Florida in which good artesian water cannot be found. The wells vary
in depth from about 60 to 400 feet. Its thousands of miles of rivers and lakes make
it probably the best watered state in the Union, Irrigation for farming purposes can
therefore be cheaply done, although the fact is that it rarely is found necessary.
The artesian water always is healthful and free from microbes.
Though not a corn state, in several portions of Florida the production is from
50 to 100 bushels of corn per acre. As to the production of cotton, both long and
short staple, the soil is peculiarly adapted.
Florida is the only state in the Union producing pineapples, 90 per cent of its
crop being grown along the east coast. The industry has become a mammoth one,
The annual output is nearly 1,000,000 crates. Ten years ago it was less than 250,000
crates.
Our pineapples, oranges and grapefruit need no eulogy. They speak for them-
selves in practically every market of the continent. Florida furnishes the daily
breakfast delicacy and the dinner dessert for millions of American homes,
We have scarcely any competition for our winter crops, as we are through
shipping by the time the states north of us come into the markets. Southern Texas
ue be called a rival, for its produce goes to other markets. California is too
ar away.
Eyecwine in the truck line is grown and potatoes, cabbages, celery, straw-
berries and other crops are raised while the farms of the North are resting.
The soil in most instances produces from 250 to 500 crates of early vegetables’
per acre and when planted with sweet potatoes will grow from 150 to 200 bushels
most anywhere in the state. Various sections seem to specialize on certain kinds of
vegetables, some annually shipping hundreds of carloads of Irish potatoes, others
trainloads of celery, tomatoes and strawberries. They raise from 800 to 1,000 crates
of strawberries, ninety to 150 bushels of Irish potatoes and equally large quantities
of other truck.
i Heer the home of sunshine and flowers, welcomes the land hungry of the
_ Our best lands produce three field crops between January and October, it re-
quiring about 90 days to mature a crop. In many counties farmers grow Irish pota-
toes, corn and sweet potatoes on the same ground in rotation, and fertilize only
after the first crop. Lands are very similar to men. Some land is better suited to
produce certain results than other, as some men are better fitted to accomplish
certain tasks than are other men. Our land produces as much per acre of the product
to which it is suited as any in the United States.
A farmer who contemplates coming to Florida should first make up his mind
what he wants to grow, because there are fruits produced in the southern and central
parts of the state which cannot be grown in the northern and western sections,
Vegetables of all kinds, however, thrive anywhere from the extreme ends of the
state during all of the winter months.
Our best lands for growing field crops are the lands we drain. Pineapples are
grown only on the high, rolling, sandy ridges. Citrus fruit requires a little heavier
soil, although there is land adapted to both. There are communities where pine-
apples are planted between orange and grapefruit trees. In the southern portion of
the state citrus fruits and other tropical and semi-tropical fruits are grown exten-
sively. Of the several trunk lines of railroad, one alone expects to ship 28,000 car-
loads of truck and fruit this season.
The following is taken from a bulletin of the State Department of Agriculture:
“The success of vegetable growing in Florida is too well known to justify going
into lengthy details as to methods of cultivation or transportation. Among the most
profitable crops are tomatoes, beans, Irish potatoes, celery, cabbage, lettuce, peppers,
egg plant. From the growing of each of these products thousands of people reap a
rich reward for their labor every year, and many of them make comfortable fortunes;
most, if not all of these vegetables, are grown at seasons of the year which enable
them to command a monopoly of the markets as well as prices. Many of these crops
bring handsome returns. Tomatoes, for instance, have yielded as much as $1,000 per
acre, but the average runs from $300 to $500, and Irish potatoes will average near
$100, lettuce from $300 to $800 per acre and celery as much as $1,500 per acre.”
Cattle, sheep, poultry, horticulture and agriculture flourish throughout the state.
Manufacturies, mining and fisheries of the state are rapidly growing. In 1911 the
manufactured products represented over $95 per capita. Florida is shipping about
one-half of the phosphate mined in the United States. There also are mines of
fuller’s earth and fine clay for pottery.
A new phase of the farming industry in our state has developed during the last
few years. Many farmers from the North and many business men as well have
winter homes and farms or orange groves. They come South in November, after
their work is over in the North, put in a crop of vegetables or market their fruit,
and by May 1 they are through and back in their northern homes.
I know a score who have done this year after year, avoiding the severe weather
of the North and enjoying outdoor life all winter in a country where the balsam of
the p’ne and the ozone of the sea air blend with warm sunshine and make every day
a “golden day” and bring health, comfort and happiness.
Florida is the winter playground of North America and over 100,000 people from
the United States and Canada spend from one to six months in tents, cottages, house-
boats or $3,000,000 hotels. The poor and the rich mingle and rub elbows. All are
as happy as children.
I remember once talking with a man from the middle West. In the conversa-
tion he was speaking of the productiveness of the soil where he lived and depreciat-
ing the non-productiveness of the soil upon which he was standing. He stated that
land in his home state would produce about 50 to 75 bushels of corn to the acre, or
from one to two tons. His attention was invited to the fact that fully 12,000 pine-
apples, weighing five pounds each and representing 25 to 30 tons to the acre, were
grown upon land similar to that upon which he stood. That ended his criticism.
Our state is being settled with good citizens. The population increased 35 per
cent during the ten years preceding the last census. The population is made up of
enterprising citizens from every state in the Union and from various foreign coun-
tries. Good land, convenient to transportation, can be obtained for from $10 to $50
an acre. From ten to forty acres are the sizes of the average farms.
There are now various plans for the colonization of the state. It would be in-
jurious to. Florida for people to come here expecting too much and going away
dissatisfied. I am confident that there are lands in the state which will suit the
whims and desires of any person in the world, if he only will take the trouble to
thoroughly investigate.
The board of internal improvement of the state has undertaken the drainage of
the Everglades. When that task is accomplished it is expected that a large area will
be valuable for farming.
Florida welcomes the honest, industrious homeseeker. There is a certain charm
about Dixie that appeals to people from all over the world.
Nine
Ten
Florida and the Better Ways
By EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN
Director of the Lowe Observatory, Mount Lowe, California, U.S.A.
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
coal in the United States has been exhausted. For in coming ages the belt
around the world in between parallels of latitude 20 and 32 degrees in both
hemispheres will be indeed the better ways on earth. And good land Florida, rich
in green and colors of all kinds of flowers, rests peacefully between degrees num-
bered 25 and 31. And the earth hath no more
favored spot.
Poets have pictured the crowding of humans
toward the equator when coal becomes costly.
For the deeper becomes the mines, the higher
will be the cost of coal production. The warm
central latitudes of the earth will therefore be-
come of exceedingly great value, and real estate
will boom. This is the inevitable future of this
planet, our earth, unless science can find a method
of securing electricity with its priceless heat, light
and power directly, without first burning coal.
This is the capital problem that must confront man
in the not very remote future. [ have called these
two zones the better ways; perhaps should read,
best ways.
EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN, Ivan Ponce de Leon discovered land in latitude
_ ASTRONOMER 30 degrees eight minutes, somewhat north of where
St. Augustine now stands, on Palm Sunday, April 4, 1512. Their name for this
day was Pascua Florida, so in its honor, he gave the name Florida to the dis-
covered land. And De Leon had been an old comrade of Christopher Columbus.
On this trip of discovery, he started from Porto Rico, in March, 1512,
An Indian girl told De Leon of a _ spring of life-giving, life-renewing
water toward the interior. He returned with an expedition in 1513, and again in
1521, in search of the wonderful spring of perpetual youth. This fabled spring of
“sweet savor and reflaire” and “of divers manner of spicery’” was beyond all doubt
of a much different nature, namely, Sulphur Springs, and these really have curative
properties, especially in cutaneous diseases. At all events, the Indian maiden knew
that the water was beneficient. Now, when I go to Florida I want to get to White
Sulphur Springs, to Okeechobee City and then up to Kissimme.
ae Creator created Florida for the beautiful home of the people after all
When I was a diminutive youth I read some kind of a story about the Ever-
elades in Florida. I ran away entirely to imagination; saw grass ten feet high
standing in water, and the edges of the grass-blades were sharp saw-teeth ready to
cut up clothing as well as flesh. No human could get through the, to me, very
mysterious Everglades. And then I saw millions of alligators, huge insects and
things. After that I read with the earnestness of a dime novel lurid accounts of
the Seminole war and the hiding of the Indians in the fastnesses of the fearful
swamp. And I carefully held to these youthful legends and traditions until my
good cousin, William L. Larkin, habitat Chicago, sent me his interesting book,
“Souvenir—Official Opening of the Gulf to Atlantic Waterway of the Everglades
Drainage Canal.”
This book was a revelation to me as it gave me the truth about the mystic
Everglades and muck lands of Florida. The popular beliefs regarding the region
never existed in reality, and “no more ridiculous fallacy was ever taught in the
public schools of America than the description of the Everglades published in
geographies.” Instead of the horrific area of waste and uselessness, the whole is
capable of complete reclamation. Indeed I was surprised when I read this. Now
let us see what this actually means.
A vast tract south of the 27th degree of latitude is now made available. It is
an area made ready for man by thousands of years of deposition of rich vege-
table and animal products. If such an expanse had suddenly been made available
in any of the Northern states, it would indeed have been valuable. But in southern
Florida, the reclamation of all land, public and private, muck and marl land, is all
the way from five to ten times more valuable. At present imagination cannot set a
price on every acre of land capable of being cultivated south of Lake Okeechobee.
Here is my prediction: In that surely coming time when the entire Northern lati-
tudes will feel the serious shortage of coal, all the governments controlling land in
the two better ways will buy them from owners and rent to the people. No land
monopoly will be tolerated when coal jumps to three, five or ten times its present
price.
There will be exciting times then; and the troubled conditions will extend
around the world. But meanwhile, in the two or three centuries before the fuel
problem looms to overpowering importance, the owners of Florida muck, marl and
hummock lands will be the very favored ones among millions of less fortunate
humans.
The food question must become acute, and the higher goes coal, the demand
for food will harass also. I may as well repeat—look out for coal and food.
The ancient Babylonians in reclaiming the lands adjacent to the Euphrates and
Tigris did no greater work for the benefit of man than this stupendous project in
the Everglades and private projects of Florida.
Why! the people have not heard of Florida. And even well informed Americans
do not yet realize its immense possibilities. Many think Florida a little winter
resort for the wealthy only. But it must inevitably become great enough to be
called Imperial.
In coming years the American people will not be such great meat-eaters as they
are now. Nature’s splendid health-food, fruits, will be in ever increasing demand.
Any square acre of tropical or sub-tropical land that can grow fruit, will be of
such enormous value that all present prices of land on earth are insignificant.
“Back to the land” is often heard now, but this cry will rise to a roar—and we
need not expect to wait for as much as a hundred years to hear it.
Arable land is becoming scarce at this moment. Here is an idea: Scientific
men are aware that there are portions of the earth’s surface actually drying out,
notably in central Asia. The water level is sinking lower. Every acre reclaimed
anywhere is of immense value; but between the 20th and 32nd parallels, they are
as fields of cloth of gold. All of Florida, every acre that possibly can be tilled,
must be given over to the raising of fruits, berries and every kind of vegetable
used for human food. It will sell—demands throughout the entire North, to Canada
even, will be great and exacting. What will be the call when the United States
shall contain 250,000,000 inhabitants?
I have attended four great national irrigation congresses; have seen the vast
projects displayed as maps and charts and listened to the engineers explain all, and
statisticians and economists tell of probabilities. The subject is immense, but in
all of these elaborate displays I have not heard of the great reclamation work in the
Everglades and private projects of Florida. |
With arid regions of the world increasing, wood and coal decreasing, there
opens a prospect calling for very serious thought. The Souvenir says that 4,000,000
acres can be rescued in the Everglade region. Yes, rescued is the very word to use,
for man will yet strain every nerve to rescue, reclaim and conserve down to square
feet where now we speak of acres. In terraces in China they speak of so many
square feet in a garden. For Florida must become as a garden for the North.
It is doubtful if there is a place on earth so rich in soil as the reclaimed Ever-
glades. Nature has been for ages at work making a garden ready. See this good
dame, Nature, had a care. She prepared immense beds of phosphates in Florida, all
ready for the garden soil when it shows the first sign of deterioration. Then think
of the warm ocean currents around southern Florida, the air currents carrying
moisture and warmth, the plentiful rainfall, and then the glorious sunshine. For
the soil of rescued Everglades is beyond a layer of gold in value. For the soil
of the earth is now being washed out to sea by every river. And man has not one
ounce to spare. Behold the great day of majesty for beautiful Florida.
Eleven
Railroads as Principle Factors
Florida’s Development
By J. E. INGRAHAM, Vice-President Florida East Coast Railway Co.
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
HAT railroads are great civilizers is a truism beyond dispute, and that they
i are also great developers is as true but not so well known. A country
may abound in natural resources, but it will remain dormant as long as there
is no means of transportation. With the coming of railroads in such a country
manufactories will spring up should it possess timber or mineral wealth; lands will
be cleared and cultivated should it be adapted to
agricultural pursuits.
In the early ’80s there were but a few miles of
railroad in Florida, which was sparsely settled and
had only a few small cities, widely separated and
not all directly connected by rail. In 1880 an era of
railroad building began, which has given the state a
very considerable mileage. As a result many im-
portant towns and cities have sprung up, and the
population has grown from a scant 325,000 in 1880
to over the million mark in 1914, and almost every
town in the state is connected with the business
centers by rail.
High-class passenger and freight service is
maintained throughout the year, which will excel
| OPEB Saal the facilities ordinarily found in such sparsely set-
CORAL ROAD,
tled communities. There is hardly a town in Flor-
MIAMI TO MONTREAL BOULEVARD.
ida but what has Pullman service the entire year
to the East, North and West, or can make such connections with very little diff-
culty or inconvenience. Fast freights are operated, which enables the grower to
market his crops to best advantage, and the shipments of citrus fruits, vegetables
and all Florida products are increasing year by year.
The railroad men of Florida have been brave, self-reliant and progressive.
Nothing has been too good for their lines. They have always been optimistic and
have worked for the advancement of the state, which they have all learned to love
so well and whose possibilities they foresaw.
The railroad man is generally the first settler in a new country. First comes
the construction gangs. Then, after the rails are laid, station buildings are erected
and the road opened for traffic. The men necessary for its operation make their
homes at the places most convenient to their work and become the pioneers. In
most instances the railroad man and his family have come from towns where they
have had comfortable and adequate conveniences for living, and their desires and
those of the incoming settler create a demand for stores to supply their wants.
The storekeeper also recognizes that the “railroad pay envelope” is a “sure thing,”
and it means something on which he can depend for steady trade. With the growth
of the towns schools and churches follow and other improvements as their progress
demands.
Prior to the commencement of the era of road construction very little was known
of Florida and its possibilities. The state was peculiarly situated, with a vast dif-
ference in climate, in soils and in products. Little was known of what could be
grown, and, as Florida is first of all an agricultural and horticultural state, its chief
asset was practically untried. I think there is no doubt but that the railroad men
were the ones that did the most in the development that followed, and, as a whole,
qwelve
there are no men who have given greater thought to this one character of devel-
opment. The Land Department (or whatever the title of the department handling
this work may be) of the railroads are continually investigating the agricultural
conditions to ascertain the relation of crops and soils and find out the products
adaptable to the different localities along their line, in order that they may be able
to give out authentic information and assist the settlers in finding suitable locations.
The freight man analyzes the products of his territory, assists in the finding of
markets that will be the most profitable to the producer, and sees that adequaté
freight service is furnished. The passenger man sees to it that the people who
come on to his line and settle, from the North, East or West, have reasonable
opportunities, at reduced rates, to visit their former homes during the summer time.
He also sees that proper passenger service is funished.
In times of stress, such as those which occurred throughout the state during
the great freeze in 1897, and during the epidemics of yellow fever—which are now
a thing of the past—the railroads came to the front with every possible means of
assistance in their power. During the time of the great fire in Jacksonville in 1903,
which was the most severe of anything that had occurred in the South up to. that
time, they were ever ready to afford means of relief.
For a long time, commencing in the ’70s, the state was looked upon as a resort
for invalids and a winter resort for a few of the wealthier class who could find
accommodations and amusement in a limited way at that time. Today Florida bids
fair to become one of the most productive states in the union. Its output is con-
tinually increasing. It is a great winter resort, and always will be, but more and
more of the winter visitors are becoming all-year-around residents, going north for
a while in the summer instead of coming south for a few months during the winter.
I think I may say without fear of dispute that there is no more cosmopolitan
country in the world than Florida, nor one that is more progressive and up-to-date.
The various counties are constructing thousands of miles of good roads, one county
in the southern part of the state having upward of 600 miles of hard surfaced roads
within its borders. The towns are paved, supplied with sewers, water works, elec-
tricity and gas; have modern public buildings, fine churches of all denominations,
high-class public schools, and stores carrying stocks of all classes of goods that
will meet all needs.
To the railroads, I think, to a large extent, must be given the credit of the mar-
velous development of Florida. They have been mainly instrumental in finding
uses for her latent resources. This activity along agricultural and horticultural
lines has brought them in closer touch with the grower than is ordinarily the case,
and to the mutual benefit of all concerned.
The fact is now established that there is hardly a crop—either farm, fruit or
vegetable—but what can be grown profitably in some part of the state, and a state
that was practically unproductive thirty years ago is now a big factor in the north-
ern markets, and seems destined to become one of the leading contributors to the
world’s food supply. And still all is not yet known of Florida’s possibilities. We
recently came to the conclusion that Florida had qualities that would make her one
of the leading stock-raising states, and what has been done along this line would
indicate that our assumption is correct.
The call of the west seems to have “been the main cause for Florida being over-
looked. Few eyes were turned in her direction until after the great western move-
ment had commenced to subside. For some incomprehensible reason the distant
and unknown often blinds us to the better things right at hand. However, Florida
is now established and making a name for herself. The railroad men who came to
this country in her barrenness and expended large amounts of money in construct-
ing roads through a non-producing land now see their judgment confirmed, and it is
a success deserved and attained, to a great extent, through their own efforts.
Thirteen
Producing Beef in Florida
By THE OBSERVER
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
éC ES, SIR, I’m leaving Iowa for good. Iowa’s a fine state; none better any-
) where. But, pshaw! All of us can’t live here.” The speaker pointed to
three husky looking boys who sat with a sad-faced woman, guarding a
pile of grips, in the Union Station at Des Moines. “The boys have got to go some-
where and I can’t afford to buy $200 an acre Iowa land, so we’re getting out. I
sold for $175 and bought in Florida for $40 an acre
and I guess 40 acres there’ll pay better than a
quarter section here. Of course, I hate leaving the
old home, but it don’t seem to bother me as much
as the woman folks,” and he looked anxiously at his
wife, already homesick. “But what in thunder can
we do? I guess we'll get used to it in time, for it
seems best for the boys.”
He was a type of the modern immigrant, leaving
the middle West for the cheaper lands of the South-
east. History was only repeating itself. The old
drama of settling America was being re-enacted.
His great-grandfather had “squatted” in Kentucky
after being crowded out of Virginia by the spread
of cotton culture; his grandfather had left Kentucky
for the cheaper lands of Ohio and Illinois, and his
father had drifted across the Mississippi into south-
ern Iowa, 50 years ago. Now, after the passing of
old frontier, he was turning back to opportunities overlooked in their mad rush
low priced western land. The waves of western immigration have broken and
rolling back across the continent to the Southeast.
“What are you going to do in Florida?” the Observer asked.
“Raise oranges, grapefruit and figs, I reckon, with vegetables between the rows
while the trees are coming into bearing. They tell me you can get three crops of
vegetables off the same piece of land each season down there,” he replied.
“Have you ever tried fruit growing or truck gardening?”
Oh, Lord, No! I’ve been too busy raising cattle and hogs to monkey with such
things as them.”
“You’ve done pretty well with live stock, haven’t you?”
“Well, I can’t complain much on the way Iowa’s treated me. I didn’t have a cent
to begin with and, of course, it’s corn and live stock has made Iowa, same as other
good farming states.”
“Then why not raise cattle and hogs in Florida?”
“Oh, shucks! There aint no cattle or hogs in Florida to speak of i116 what
there are aint worth a cuss. Why, they think down there a hog’s fat when you pick
it up by the ears and it just balances. Most of the cattle are runty critters that ain't
got no meat on their bones; they’re all et up by the ticks and they don’t get enough
to eat; they’re inbred for a thousand years till they’re all run down.. Why, an lowa
man. has to laugh to see some of the herds called cattle.”
Then why don’t you put some meat on and build up the herd by taking in a
good immune bull from Texas. By dipping them you get rid of the ticks and fence
the scrub cattle out. By planting tame grasses and forage crops they will have
plenty of good feed. By giving them half the care you do in Iowa, not even folks
from your state, would laugh at hearing them called cattle.”
This time his contempt for The Observer’s ignorance was so great that in spite
of womanly ears he exclaimed, “Oh, hell! Florida’s no cattle country or they’d be
some there. Besides, raising cattle’s hard work and the profits ain’t in it with fruit
erowing. Why, there’s a fellow down near where I bought that cleaned $2,000 an
acre profit off his grapefruit grove one season and that beats raising cattle all
s $9
ee it was again—the man who made $2,000 an acre net profit from his Flor-
ida fruit grove! There must have been some man, some place in Florida, who some
THE OBSERVER
Fourteen
time made $2,000 profit per acre on his fruit. The Observer knows there must have
been such a man because he’s read about him so often and heard so many land men
tell about him. But he is as elusive as the proverbial Irishman’s flea and he jumps
around fast but never lights. You cross his trail everywhere but he is always a
native of the county you are in. After years of “watchful waiting’ The Observer
has failed to locate him. I have located a number of fruit growers without the aid
of blood hounds who have produced $500 and $1,000 per acre, but that $2,000 an acre
man of mystery should be captured and placed in the hall of fame ‘while the cap-
turing is good.” When he is found The Observer is confident that four facts will
be revealed: First, that he is an expert fruit grower with years of hard work and
trying experience behind him; second, that his remarkable yield was in an excep-
tional season when conditions were right; third, that his acreage was small and
received the most scientific cultivation, and, fourth, that his grove can be bought
for less than his net profit for a single season.
The Observer was going to call his Iowa friend’s attention to the fact that there
are a million head of cattle in Florida. That the state as a whole and especially
the prairie country in central and southern Florida is one of the finest grass sections
of the United States. That the finest forage crops furnishing the best of fatteners
can be grown there luxuriantly at a minimum of trouble and expense—its climate
makes a natural “calf incubator’—but he gave it up. What was the use! He was
inoculated with the “fruitaritus” and was a hopeless case. The fruit gamble had
him and it’s worse than the mining fever.
- Nor has The Observer any reason or desire to criticise the Florida fruit grower.
It’s a fine business—none better—for the man who is expert or who is willing to
spend time, money and patience to become expert. But for the man who has raised
cattle, sheep and hogs all his life there is a better game in Florida with surer and
larger profits than he ever made in the North or is likely to make playing a new
game in the South. He is the man who is going to save Florida from the frenzied
fruit grower and the winter tourist—just as surely as the boll weevil saved some
portions of the South by forcing a diversified agriculture on the cotton growers.
The other sections of the South have good cause this year to regret they did not
take the cure.
The United States is 25,000,000 beef cattle short with conditions rapidly grow-
ing worse. Many causes have combined to produce this result. The Government
Bureau of Animal Industry reports that if every available source were drawn upon
to the utmost it would be years before we could begin to catch up with the present
shortage.
Nor can we expect much relief from Canada, Mexico, South America or other
foreign countries even under free-trade arrangements, for it is not merely a local
shortage we are facing—it is a world shortage. Oklahoma, Texas and the western
country are no longer able to supply their own feeders and are beginning to draw
on Georgia and Florida. It is the Southeast and especially Florida that is in the
best position to help the situation.
Uncle Sam is boosting the Southeast as a cattle country; and the packers, ap-
preciating what present conditions mean, are pointing out the same thing; farm
journals all over the country are showing their readers the bonanza offered by the
native southern cow crossed with a grade bull. Opportunity is playing an “Anvil
Chorus” on the door of every farmer in Florida, but the great majority are interested
in the growing of speculative crops and it looks as though it were going to remain
for outside cow men to realize the possibilities. The comparatively few who have
seen the creat chance are making a ten strike and pointing the way for others.
The average northerner has never thought of Florida as a cattle state. This
has been due largely to the fact that until recently Florida cattle have been sent to
Cuba. The slowness of Florida cattle men to take up the important matter of tick-
eradication has also hitherto prevented shipment across the quarantine line to
northern points. Within the last few months, however, there has been a change and
large shipments have been made to northern and western points. Thirty-five thou-
sand head of feeders were sent to the “101 Ranch” in Oklahoma: train loads have
gone to the canners at Kansas City and Chicago; shipments have been made to
Indiana and Ohio and with the aid of the federal government 12,000 head were sent
to western feed lots. A fair example of characteristic. short-sightedness is furnished
by the fact that the Florida cattle man is selling off his cows and thus robbing
himself of his surest source of big income for the future. He is discounting the. folly
of the man who killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
These cattle bring from three to four cents a pound, and, being small and thin,
the price runs from only $15 to $25 for three year olds. A short time ago the pick
of the herd could be had for $20 in De Soto County. Even that looked like a big
price to the native cattle man. He figures that it costs him only two or three dollars
to raise an animal to a three year old weighing around 600 pounds, and if he can
sell for $20 he has a nice margin of profit left. He has grown wealthy at it, too,
and that without much effort on his part, so why should he worry! As an exponent
Fifteen
of easy-life philosophy the Florida cattle man is without a peer. But the day of the
old free range in Florida is passing just as surely and as rapidly as it passed in the
Southwest. The old style, easy-going cattle man has got to give way to the efficient
stock raiser, who will still have a cheap even if not a free range, and will make many
dollars bloom in profits where but one bloomed before.
Florida cattle could not very well help being thin and runty considering the
lack of intelligent attention they have received. They have been allowed to in-breed
for generations; they are infested with the tick like all southern cattle where no
effort has been made at eradication, and can be done easily and cheaply by dipping;
they are practically strangers to the taste of salt and have to walk miles under a
semi-tropical sun for poor surface water when good flowing wells can be easily
obtained in most parts of the state; little attention is given to the castration of young
bulls and calves are never weaned. But the greatest trouble is that they do not get
enough to eat nor the right things to eat. They are left to graze the year round on
the wild grass (something like northtrn blue-stem only coarser) without other feed,
and that in a country which will grow practically every tame grass and forage crop
luxuriantly for the planting.
Little wonder, then, that Florida cattle are under-sized, thin and anaemic or that
“St makes an Iowa man laugh to call them animals cattle,” as our Iowa friend said.
It is seeing these things and not appreciating the fact that the drawbacks can be
eliminated by intelligent care and that the trouble is not with Florida cattle, land or
climate, but with the man behind the cattle that makes the stranger pass Florida
by in his search for good, cheap grazing land.
But the fact remains that the land is there to be had for from $10 to $15 an
acre in large tracts; that it is as good wild grazing land as this country ever offered
and that it can be made to produce as many pounds of good beef at a lower cost
per acre than any other state in the Union.
The Observer hopes his Iowa friend will make a big success growing fruit and
vegetables in Florida. Many northerners do, but he is “playing a long shot to win,”
and SF nage an old favorite that would pay him better returns if he went about
it Tight.
Cattle raising in Florida has none of the romantic attractions of citrus fruit
growing; there is nothing poetical or fanciful about it. It takes time and hard work
to overcome the handicaps which generations of indifference have imposed.
It takes about three crops of farmers to make any new country, and in Florida
—one of the oldest states in years, but the youngest in development—the third crop
is just coming on. The first was the unscientific cattle man and fruit grower; the
second was the frenzied speculator and one-crop farmer, and the third is the diversi-
fied farmer. He will raise staple products with some speculative crops as a side line
and the former will tide him safely through those years when the elements and low
prices beset the path of the one-crop farmer.
Then and not till then will Florida’s lop-sides trade balance attain its right pro-
portions. Then she will cease sending money to Iowa for eggs, to outside packers
for meat, to northern canning plants for vegetables, and to any state for oats, baled
hay and all kinds of feed, which can be raised to better advantage at home.
Mr. G. M. Grace, chief cattle buyer for Miller Bros. famous “101 Ranch” in
Oklahoma, told the story of Florida cattle in an interview in the Arcadia (Florida)
paper. He said:
“T have been here since March buying up and shipping cattle to Oklahoma. In
the five months I have been here we have shipped about 23,000 head and have 10,000
more already bought for shipment.
“Your cattle are the best of any in the United States—in saying that I mean
that they are better proportioned. They are small and clean-limbed and if crossed
with another breed the very best results would be obtained.
“In other words, Florida beef would be the highest on the market and would
bring $1 more on the hundred pounds than any other beef.
“Your grass here is nutritious, but not fattening. You can grow red clover, Para
grass, Natal grass, Rhodes grass, Bermuda grass or a half dozen other good grasses
to the very best advantage. I have noticed red clover about the cattle pens where
sprouts have sprung up and, being a very prolific plant, spread rapidly. From my
observation I can see that the cattle are not getting enough salt, which is very neces-
sary and helps in keeping them up.
“You have better facilities in this state for raising cattle than any other place
in the Union, but,” concluded Mr. Grace, “the breed should be improved, and atten-
tion given to raising the proper grasses and forage crops.”
Editor’s Note-——The Iowa man_ should visit the Carson Ranch that recently received
75 full-blood Holstein bulls from Texas; the Leslie Ranch, Kissimmee; the King Ranch,
Arcadia; Robert Bradford’s herd of Jerseys, Leon County; S. H. Gaitskill’s registered
short horns, McIntosh; Marion County, Florida, Vegetable Company’s Jersey farm at
Hastings; A. Snellgrove’s Holstein herd at St. Augustine. The cow man from Iowa
might change his mind and plant calf incubators between the rows of grapefruit trees
instead of early vegetables after visiting the above stock farms.
Sixteen
~~
The World’s Food Problem
By WILLIAM L. LARKIN
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
ET us relax for a moment and diagnose the food problem of the world
; through the normal eyesight of intelligent, thinking humans and not
through exaggerated lenses which magnify or contract, according to the com-
dition of our mind, personal interest or disregard of the advancement of the human
race. Let us take the cold facts and figures prepared by experts and form our
own conclusions regarding the duty of the producer
and consumer in the distribution of the world’s food
supply on an equitable basis.
Our own government census bureau informs ug
that the United States feeds 100,337,000 mouths
daily from the products of the soil.
From the same source we are informed that
during a period of ten years our population in-
creased 21 per cent and our farm land acreage only
four and a fraction during the same length of timé,
Food prices continue to soar under maximum crop
conditions. In addition to feeding our own, the
future demand on our food supply from the warring
nations of Europe will far exceed our production.
When the slaughter ceases and the impoverished
nations are forced through lack of food and funds
to readjust conditions, Florida will have a chance
to supply more than her share of the shortage.
It takes time to recover lost commercial prestige. It takes time to reconstruct
the neglected agricultural and industrial commerce of Europe, and time to re-
capture lost trade with foreign nations.
While America sympathizes with the warring nations and deplores the terrible
waste of human lives and the loss of billions of dollars through the most gigantic
error ever forced on the nations of the world, at the same time it is our duty to
make hay while the war clouds hover over Europe and the sun shines over tropical
Florida. Increasing our bank account under such conditions is only human and
will result in mutual benefit in readjusting the food supply of the world.
Feeding ten million soldiers that destroy more than they consume, in addition
to feeding the refugees and thousands of starving, homeless humans, brings us face
to face with a food problem that is almost unthinkable.
Florida should concentrate her vast energies and intelligence by taking ad-
vantage of this opportunity and double her crop production and earning power
while the rest of the world is in the grip of frost and snow. Unless something is
done to increase production thousands will go hungry in European countries
where the greatest war of modern times is still in progress. It is the farmer that
solves the problem of food, clothing, shelter and all things that contribute to the
health, happiness and prosperity of the nation, :
We should also remember that the purchasing value of a dollar has shrunk
today to about two-thirds of its value in 1896. In other words a dollar will buy only
two-thirds of the food products it would in 1896.
Bulletin 140, U. S. Department of Labor, shows an increase in the retail price
of food from 1890 to 1913 of over 70 per cent.
The main causes of this shortage are attributed to various conditions, con-
tinual changes in methods and the annual production of new wealth from year to
year in proportion to supply and demand which has affected the purchasing power
of the dollar.
“The total increase from 1896 to the present,” says Irving Fisher of Yale, pro-
fessor of economy, “is about 75 per cent, which is more than the increase of whole
WILLIAM L. LARKIN
Seventeen.
sale prices, owing principally to the fact that the present statistics include besides
wholesale prices the prices of shares. The volume of trade for any year is repre-
sented as the number of dollars worth on the basis of the prices in 1909. Thus
the actual value of trade in 1909 was 387,000,000,000, i. e., three hundred eighty-seven
billion units of goods of various kinds, the units being such as to be worth one
dollar in 1909. The trade in 1912 was 450,000,000,000 of these same units, i. e., such
as were worth one dollar in 1909. Similarly the trade in 1896 was 191,000,000,000 of
these units. As the index number of prices shows that the price level of 1896 was
only about 60 per cent of the price level of 1909, the actual value of trade in 1896
was only 114,600,000,000. This is for 1896, i. e., one hundred ninety-one billion
units, each worth one dollar in 1909, at 60 cents each, the price of a unit in 1896,”
Florida has no cause to be alarmed over feeding her own population. The
only trouble with Florida is the fact that making a living is too easy. In 1910
Florida had a population of 752,610 with 45,861 square miles to draw on for her
food supply. In other words thirteen mouths to be fed on every square mile.
In Europe things are different. Egypt has a population of 9,821,000 and 931
humans are fed from every square mile. Germany, with 208,780 square miles,
sustains a population of 64,925,993. Belgium, that leads the world in maximum
crop production, is about the size of Palm Beach County and sustains a population
of 7,300,000 from 11,373 square miles of territory, or 660 are fed on every square
mile. Her fields have been devastated like many in the war zone and her food
supply must come from other sources. This condition applies to every nation in
the war zone. Holland comes next with 587. British Empire, 373, and Japan 336
per square mile. The monarchs of Europe will gladly furnish every soldier a
nniform, guns, ammunition and battleships to destroy human lives, and the com-
merce of the sea, but not even a hoe or seed to replenish the food destroyed and
consumed by the gigantic armies of destruction.
The following list shows the population and square miles of territory that pro-
vides European countries with their food supplies. In building for the future this
list will furnish an object lesson in thrift to follow and an object lesson in restrain-
ing the ambition of Emperors and Kings for the betterment of the human race.
Countries Population Sq. miles
British Empire 435,000,000 13123-7412
Russian Empire 166,250,000 8,647,657
United States 100,337,000 3,616,484
France 39,601,509 207,054
ELMAN MEP ITE Mets|sitte sis.es c/eratete 64,925,993 208,780
Prussia 40,165,219 134,616
7 29,292
,806, 5,789
Wartemberg 7,934
Austro-Hungarian Empire 261,020
Japan 67,142,798 235,886
(Turkish (empires...) ss i. cane OOOO
Italy 34,700,000 110,623
From the beginning of the human race man has struggled and worked with
brain and brawn to solve the most important question for the upbuilding of a
prosperous nation, namely, the food supply.
No other single factor can guarantee so much happiness and prosperity as the
bounteous crops that the farmer produces from the soil. Man came into this
world to work and improve conditions.
No matter what vocation he chooses in life, every man should be just as ime
portant in carrying on the world’s work assigned to him as the man higher up.
The greatest problem that confronts the world today is that of providing the
food supply of the nation on an equitable basis.
It is not a local condition but a national condition that must be solved. Florida,
the winter garden spot of the nation, has the chance of a life time to double her
population and earning power by taking advantage of conditions forced upon us
by the warring nations.
Florida has the soil, the climate, and the farmer. The opportunity is here and
the time is now.
Eighteen
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Nineteen
Growing Sugar Cane in Florida
By R. E. ROSE, State Chemist
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
ERE it generally known that larger amounts of sugar can be made in
Wy Florida, at a much less cost per acre, with less labor, with but little skill
required in growing, with far less capital required for machinery, and
manufacturing, than in beet-sugar making, vast sums would be invested in the
business. The location of central mills, at various parts of the state—near Pensa-
cola, Mariana, Quincy, Tallahassee, Madison, Lake
City, Gainesville, Ocala, Leesburg, Brooksville,
Lakeland, Plant City, Bartow, Ft. Meade, Punta
Gorda, and Bradentown—could each afford a supply
of cane for mills making each 5,000,000 or more
pounds per annum. On the St. Johns River and
East Coast, St. Augustine, Hastings, DeLeon
Springs, Tomoka, Daytona, Port Orange, New
Smyrna and Titusville afford equally as fine op-
portunities for the establishment of central mills.
These mills or factories, purchasing their sup-
plies from the farmer, can afford to pay for the
cane delivered, a price, equal to the sum now ob-
tained for his crude syrup, now made in a crude and
wasteful manner, saving the farmer the annoyance
and cost of manufacture, and packages, and at the
same time make large profits on the capital in-
vested.
Any soil in Florida that will produce a fair crop of corn will produce a cor-
responding crop of sugar cane—any well-drained sandy loam, particularly soils with
a clay or marl sub-soil, such as are generally chosen for trucking or vegetable
growing, soils with a large percentage of vegetable matter, well-drained flat woods,
low hummocks, and saw grass lands largely composed of vegetable matter. The
gently rolling lands of west and north Florida, with clay sub-soil, a warm sandy
loam, well drained naturally, soils that produce fair crops of corn. The soils
generally chosen for Irish potatoes—well-drained flat woods, with clay bottoms,
similar to the Hastings and Dupont, St. Johns County potato soils, and similar soils
in Columbia, Suwannee, Baker, Duval, and other northern counties, with vast areas
of similar soil in Orange, Osceola, Polk, Hillsborough, DeSoto and Lee.
In fact, as I have said in previous articles, I know of no township in Florida
that could not furnish sufficient cane to supply a factory, with a capacity of 5,000
to 10,000 acres of cane per season, producing 15,000,000 to 30,000,000 pounds of pure
granulated sugar per season.
Further south in St. Lucie, Palm Beach, Dade and Lee Counties, below the
twenty-eighth parallel, where vast areas of rich land in large bodies can be had,
the plantation or “gang-system” will prove most satisfactory, where the planter
owns the factory and cultivates the cane also. This system is applicable only
where there is no probability of killing frost, where large fields can be safely allowed
to stand till wanted by the mill. North of the twenty-eighth parallel the central-
factory system, similar to the beet-factory system of Germany, Austria and the
West, will be found most satisfactory. Where the acreage is made up of numerous
small fields of ten to forty acres each, each farmer, in case of threatened freezing
weather, can properly care for his crop by windrowing or mat- laying, as is now
practiced in Georgia, Mississippi and frequently in Louisiana. :
The crop can then be delivered as the factory requires it. This process of
securing the crop adds but little to the cost and keeps the cane perfectly for months.
R. E. ROSE.
Twenty
‘No silos or bins are required for cane as with beets. The delay caused by a cold
snap seldom retards the work of sugar making to exceed three days.
I advocate the central-mill plan, purchasing cane from the farmers, that the
best results may be had both in the field and in the factory, the farmer devoting his
time, skill and labor to producing the largest possible crop of high-grade cane, the
miller to the most economical methods of making the best sugar, each receiving the
greatest reward possible for his skill in his particular line.
The culture of sugar cane is practically similar to that required for Indian corn.
Fall planting—October 15 to December 1—is preferable to spring planting.
For “seed” the mature canes are planted by laying them in a furrow on properly
prepared land, in one continuous row or line, lapping each cane a foot or more to
insure a perfect stand, cutting such cane as are crooked, in order to keep the row
straight. The proper distance between rows is six feet.
While 65 tons per acre of cane have been grown on large areas of rich land,
and 35 tons averaged on fields of more than 500 acres, it is safe to estimate care-
fully; while it is claimed that 30 tons is a fair average, my opinion is that the
estimate should be an average of 20 tons per acre.
Basing the selling price of granulated sugar at 5 cents per pound, paying the
grower one-half the value of the sugar in the cane, or four dollars per ton for
cane, the gross profit of the factory should be three dollars per ton of cane, from
which is to be deducted interest charges on investment, wear and tear of machinery,
and general expenses not included in manufacturing costs. Hence a factory, hand-
ling 1,000 acres, or 200 tons, of cane per day for 100 days (a very small factory—
modern factories handle 1,000 to 2,000 tons of cane per day), would pay its owners
$3.00 per ton of cane handled, or $60,000 gross per season, from which must be de-
ducted all expenses but that of manufacturing ($1.00 per ton of cane or 62 cents per
100 pounds of sugar). Such a factory will cost approximately from $150,000 to
$200,000, erected and ready for work, much depending on local conditions.
Forty per cent of the world’s supply of sugar, some 7,500,000 tons of 2,000 ~
pounds each, are grown in those countries now at war—Belgium, France, Germany,
Austria and Russia. This year’s crop will not be harvested. Were the war to cease
today, it would be years before these countries would again produce their average
crops.
Sugar has become a staple food. It is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
The production has barely kept pace with the demand or consumption. No surplus
is carried over from year to year.
The total acreage for the state reported in 1910 was 7,522 acres, valued at
$794,172, or $105 per acre. More than half this acreage was produced in the northern
tier of counties. It is safe to say that, using better machinery, mills and evaporators,
this value could readily have been increased 50 per cent, or to $150 per acre.
With a modern central sugar, or syrup factory, similar to the beet factories
of the West, the value of the product would have been at least double, or $200
per acre.
Grinding begins October 15 in Louisiana, and seldom before November 15 in
North Florida, insuring thirty additional days for maturing the crop. In South
Florida killing frosts are of rare occurrence, and grinding continues from December
1 to February. In tropical Florida, south of the 28th parallel, frost to kill oranges,
lemons, limes or tropical cane, seldom occurs. The climate of West, Northern and
Middle Florida has fully thirty days longer growing season than Louisiana, while
South Florida has forty-five to. sixty.
In tropical Florida the element of frost does not come into calculation. Grind-
ing may begin when the crop is ready and extend into the next growing season.
There is no agricultural product more staple than sugar—no crop more certain
to produce a fair return. A total failure of a cane crop has never been recorded.
Editor’s Note—The United States imports annually for local consumption from for-
eign countries 2,406,500 tons of sugar at 5 cents per pound, amounting to $240,000,000.
This will be produced in Florida when capital seeking safe investment wakes up to the
opportunities in the land of sunshine and flowers.
Twenty-one
Florida and Her Great Opportunities
By W. A. McRAE, Commissioner of Agriculture
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
truck farming, and all branches of agricultural pursuits. A country best
adapted to these industries should possess good climate, good soil and suffi-
cient rainfall to grow crops without irrigation,
Florida’s climatic conditions and her annual rainfall is sufficient to grow bounte-
ous crops without irrigation.
The state of Florida extends north and south through 600 miles of latitude and
east and west through 400 miles of longitude. Her climate is semi-tropical in the
northern part of the state and going south it is almost a tropical climate when the
lower end of the peninsula is reached. There is a greater regularity of climate in
Florida than in any-portion of North America, as will be shown by the Government
Official Reports of average annual and monthly temperature and precipitation:
Nearly every kind of soil known to America
is found in Florida. We have the heavy loam land
in the northern and western portions of the state
and outcropping of the same soil through the various
sections of the entire state. These lands we find in
varying grades of clay and sandy loam in every
county of the state; the heavy loam with hardwood
timber is found principally in Gadsden, Leon,
Madison, Jefferson, Jackson, Holmes and Washing-
ton Counties in the north and western portions of
the state, and in Alschwo, Levy, Columbia, Marion,
Hernando, Citrus, Pasco and Sumter Counties in
east and central Florida. There are no finer lands
than these in any county for general farm purposes,
or for fruit and vegetable growing when far enough
south. The sandy loam lands are unsurpassed for
fruit and vegetable production and the varying
grades of these soils are to be found in every county
in this state in abundant acreage. ;
When we reflect upon the remarkable success attained by those engagea 1n the
various branches of agricultural pursuits in Florida, we realize that there is prac-
tically no limit to the capacity of our soils or our resources and possibilities for
industrial development.
With the great and continued improvements in methods of planting, fertilizing
and cultivating the numerous crops, largely through the aid of improved methods,
the yields have been increased to a remarkable degree. Indeed it is not unusual
for the grower of such crops as lettuce, celery, cauliflower, tomatoes, egg plants
and other crops under an intensive system of cultivation, to receive from three to
five hundred dollars per acre, and in many instances as high as eight to twelve
and even fifteen hundred dollars per acre. Under old time methods such yields
would have been impossible; nor are these methods alone practiced in the, produc-
tion of vegetable crops; the same improvements have been and are being rapidly
extended into the cultivation of the standard field crops,, such as cotton, corp,
sugar cane, oats, velvet beans, cow peas and others.
Florida could rightly be called a “live stock nursery” for here cattle, sheep and
hogs can be bred and finished for the market as cheap, if not cheaper, than any-
where else in the United States.
There are now grazing on the natural ranges in Florida more than 800,000 head
of stock cattle that have never had anything to feed on except the native grasses
found on the range. Cattle here live to an old age and disease of any kind is seldom
seen among the herds unless imported from other states.
i yppietne a is truly a state of great opportunities in the fields of horticulture,
W. A. MC RAE,
Twenty-two
With large areas of cheap grazing lands that are still available, with thousands
of acres of good agricultural land which can also be had at reasonable prices, the
astounding fact prevails that stock feed can be raised in Florida for less cost per
pound or bushel than it can be raised anywhere else and should make Florida the
Mecca for stock raising.
Florida offers great opportunities for the dairyman. We are not limited
to the growing of one crop on the same land during any single year. We can grow
some crops successfully every day in the year. -Stock raising and dairying can be
made a profitable business even though run on a small scale. A country where
grasses and the various field crops grow the year round is by nature a country for
dairying and stock raising.
Florida has more sea coast than any other state in the Union. Nearly the entire
coast, 1,600 miles, is noted for splendid fisheries and thousands of tons of fish are
caught from her waters and distributed through hundreds of markets in the
Northern and Western states annually. There is nearly 800 miles of this coast that
is adapted to the growing of oysters and clams; some of the finest known are found
in these waters.
The Legislature of 1913 enacted a law giving citizens of the state the right to
lease water bottoms along the coast for oyster and clam culture, and since the pass-
ing of the act nearly 10,000 acres have been leased for oyster and clam culture.
We can safely say that in from ten to fifteen years there will be at least 100,000
people employed in the oyster and fish industry on the Florida coast. Ten acres
of oysters well planted and well cared for will make a splendid living for a small
family; the only trouble is in the planting.
Florida offers rich returns to all those interested in bee culture. With her
short winters and myriads of flowers that bloom during every month in the year,
success to the bee culturist is assured if those engaged in the business devote the
same care and attention to that business that is required to bring success in any
other business or industry. There are, perhaps, fewer diseases to combat in Florida
than in any other section of the United States.
Possibly no state in the Union has enjoyed a longer and more continuous
period of good government than has the state of Florida, and this alone has much
to do in making Florida one of the richest states, per capita, in the entire Union.
The report by the United States Government in 1914 showed Florida the richest
state per capita of all the Southern states and she stood well in the front with the
richer states in the North.
In writing of the state of Florida, showing her advantages to the tourist and
home seeker, attention is called to the things which makes her a country with the
greatest possibilities of any other state in the Union. Good climate, good soil, suffi-
cient rainfall to grow crops without irrigation; a state with good government, with
no bonded indebtedness, low taxation and great wealth per capita of population.
Florida’s rate of taxation is about one-third of any of the Northern states and lower
than any of the Southern states where low priced lands are offered to homeseekers.
We invite good citizens to come to Florida. There are over thirty million acres
of good land that is not in cultivation, and only needs the touch of man’s hand to
turn it from the grassy plain into cultivated fields that will bring rich returns.
The man who comes to Florida with the idea that he can get a living without
work, had better not come, neither should the person without money, enough at
least to pay his way for six months or longer. Nowhere on the American continent
can the industrious man find a better country, a more congenial climate, or a more
responsive soil; nowhere can he make as good a living and create a competence for
the future with less labor and personal effort as in Florida, if he but observes the
laws of common sense and ordinary business requirements.
A new era is dawning on the great state of Florida. Our own people see, as
never before, the thousands of opportunities that are here for development. Resi-
dents from other states of the Union see these opportunities and are coming by the
thousands, and they are coming from the four corners of the earth and seeking
homes with us and buying our lands for permanent homes and investments in all
lines of endeavor.
Twenty-three
Fertilization of Florida Soils
By MRS. M. N. G. PRANGE
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
EFORE maximum results can be obtained from the application of fertilizer,
the soil must be made a congenial environment for the plant.
Drainage is the first essential. Good drainage means that the average
water table is at least two and one-half feet below the surface. Some of our lands
are naturally well drained, but the greater portion of the best land in Florida is
naturally too wet for profitable cultivation. Often a small amount of ditching to a
natural outlet will give relief, but in some instances the establishment of immense
drainage systems has been necessary. These drainage operations have been of un-
told value to the state, for acres upon acres of choice land that has in the past been
either saturated or wholly covered with water are now adequately drained and ready
for cultivation. Wide, shallow ditches carry off surplus water just as rapidly as
deep, narrow ones and tend far less to extreme dryness in periods of drouth.
Clearing.—This should be done thoroughly. Living trees and bushes rob the
cultivated crops, and dead roots not only interfere with proper tillage, but by their
gradual decay, create unfavorable soil conditions. A ditch should surround every
clearing to cut off the roots from the uncleared land, even though it is not neces-
sary for drainage.
Lime.—Practically all Florida soil needs lime. The exceptions are where there
is a marl subsoil lying within a few inches of the surface. The best and most
economical form of lime is crushed limestone which costs $1.50 per ton in bulk by
car lots, f. o. b. works in Marion County. Light soils should be given at least one
and one-half to two tons per acre, and heavy soils two or three tons. Land upon
which potatoes are to be grown should not be limed since potatoes grow equally well
on slightly acid soil and acidity checks the development of scab.
Humus.—The organic matter so essential to fertility is rapidly leached out of
our open soils, therefore every effort must be made to build up the humus content
of the greater portion of the land, while in even the richest areas care must be given
to its maintenance.
Legumes should be grown freely—not the legumes of the north, but those
adapted to Florida—namely, velvet beans, cowpeas, and beggar weed. Velvet beans
and cowpeas are to be preferred on new land. They not only enrich the soil but
take from it certain factors deleterious to the growth of cultivated crops. As soil
improvers they are practically of the same value. Cowpeas are to be preferred where
citrus trees are to be planted as they do not overrun the young trees. Velvet beans
should be used on garden land or in peach orchards, since cowpeas are so likely to
induce root knot. Beggar weed is preferred in established citrus groves needing
cover crops since it is self-seeding. Only dry matter should be worked into the
soil, for here in Florida, contrary to northern conditions, the turning under of green
vegetation forms poisonous compounds.
Raw Phosphates.—The lack of humus and the inability to turn under green
manures makes the use of untreated phosphates impractical. The matter has been
tested again and again, and it is thoroughly accepted that “floats” are of no value
whatever on our Florida lands. Some very good people contend that soft phosphate
can be used to advantage in the muck soils, but, though there are acres of soft
phosphate deposits, all attempts to create a demand sufficient to support operations
have failed, and all the works have been abandoned, so that no soft phosphate can
now be found on the market.
Lack of Plant Food.—Some of the muck lands of Florida analyze very high in
nitrogen, but a great part of this nitrogen is only slowly available to the plant.
Twenty-four
While there are different types of land, and some soils need less nitrogenous fertil-
izer than others, the Florida grower generally has to fertilize his crop, depending
very little on natural resources. While this adds somewhat to the expense of mak-
ing the crop, statistics show a higher net profit per acre from Florida soils than from
the richest of northern farm lands.
Fertilizer Problems.—The pioneers of Florida met unknown conditions. North-
ern practices are not successful here. In growing truck there must be right pro-
portions of quickly and slowly available plant food to insure rapid and steady de-
velopment; the citrus tree is extremely sensitive as to its sources of plant food, the
tree itself being easily thrown into a diseased condition, while the quality of the
fruit is even more readily influenced; and there is ever present the necessity of so
proportioning the different ingredients as to keep to a minimum the leaching away of
plant food elements.
These needs have been worked out and the newcomer of today finds the results
of some forty years’ experience in crop production offered to him in the commercial
fertilizers on the market. These formulas are varied to meet the many needs, and
explicit directions for their use are given by agricultural experts so the veriest novice
has at his command without extra cost the best methods of fertilization known to the
present date. He can thus profit by the hard earned experience of others.
State Fertilizer Laws.—We are proud of the protection Florida gives in regard
to fertilizer. Any grower can have his fertilizer analyzed free of expense and, besides
this, a corps of energetic inspectors are constantly sampling fertilizer wherever
found. This insures to the grower an honest product.
Welcome.—There is just one Florida in the whole world. She opens wide her
doors to all good citizens. She offers to you twelve months of harvest in place of
six months to produce and six to consume. Her incomparable climate is yours to
enjoy: no rigors of winter weather, no prostration from heat in summer, no floods
to sweep away homes, no burning winds to parch the crops in the field; but, instead,
a pleasant interchange of bright sunshine, copious rains, and balmy breezes. For
twenty-seven years I have scarcely left her borders, and I would I had a thousand
voices to chant the praises of ‘Florida, my Florida” and to bid you welcome to
her many bounties.
Editor’s Note.—Mrs. Prange learned the story of the soil from practical experience.
For many years she successfully cropped, cultivated and managed her own farm at Vero,
Florida. She is the department manager of the largest manufacturers of fertilizer in the
state of Florida.
Potato Field in January that brings $2.50 per One of 20 dredges that cut over 600 miles
bushel f. 0. b. Ft, Lauderdale, Fla. water-ways in Florida suitable for trans-
portation, irrigation and drainage.
Twenty-five
J. R. DAVEY, Jr.’s, TREE, CLEARWATER, FLORIDA
6 feet around trunk, Bore 90 boxes of fruit in 1894, One of the largest Citrus trees in the State.
BUNDANT rainfall gives Florida tremendous advantage over every citrus-growing section.
The vast proportion of citrus fruits of the world are grown in semi-arid regions. The semi-
arid regions usually suffer from the fact that the rainfall does not come in the summer time
when greatly needed, but is supplied by artificial methods. Irrigation rights in southern Cali-
fornia cost in some of the districts $30.00 per acre.
The average annual charge for water throughout California is $5.00 per acre, representing 5 per
cent on a valuation of $100.00 per acre, the additional cost irrigated lands entail over lands where
moisture is supplied by rainfall.
The average annual rainfall in California is twelve to twenty-one inches, which comes in October
and April, when the trees need moisture the least. Moisture during the hot summer months in Cali-
fornia is supplied through expensive impounding and pumping systems.
Florida’s rainfall averages 53 inches annually and the largest percentage falls between April and
October, when California has no rainfall and the growing citrus trees require it most.
Assuming that the average cost of water rights in California is $100.00 per acre, and the average
annual water tax is $5.00 per acre, or 5 per cent on a $100.00 per acre valuation, and the cost of
buildine laterals and small ditches throughout the grove is $50.00 per acre, California growers are
forced to submit to a $250.00 per acre handicap in the growing of citrus fruit.
Florida’s advantage of moisture is not the only big advantage over all other citrus-growing sections.
It is eonceded by fruit dealers the world over that Florida has no real competitor in the growing
of commercial grapefruit.
California produces naval oranges that yield average returns of about $250.00 per acre. Good
grapefruit groves in Florida for many years past have yielded $500.00 per acre.
Estimated on a basis of. their earning capacity representing 5 per cent of their value, citrus
groves that are worth $1,000.00 per acre in California are worth $2,000.00 per acre in Florida.
The surprising feature, however, is that while first quality California citrus land sells for from
$250.00 to $1,500.00 per acre, the very choicest citrus land in Florida selis for $50.00 to $100.00 per acre.
Notwithstanding the advantages Florida possesses over competitive fruit-crowing sections it takes
money and good, hard wark, intelligently directed, to succeed. The first question the California colon-
izer asks the prospective land buyer, ‘‘Can you afford to farm in California?’ Any man with brains
and sufficient amount of energy can afford to farm in Florida, for land is so low priced and possesses
A maximum earning capacity, with no annual water rent to eat up profits.
Eiehteen years ago Florida produced about 500,000 boxes of citrus fruit annually. This year Florida
will produce over 9,000,000 boxes of commercial citrus fruit.
Twenty-six
Gardening in Florida
By WALTER WALDIN, Author of ‘‘ Truck Farming in Florida ’’
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
(ee in Florida for pleasure has more pleasure, for profit is more
profitable, than in any other state in the Union. Nowhere does nature smile
as in Florida; it doesn’t smile here, it just grins. But a seed in the ground
in the North and how often do you find that cold rains, cold soils, and incongenial
weather will cause the seed to fail utterly. On the other hand, our congenial sandy
soil and humid warm atmosphere awakens the germ
with such enthusiasm that it fairly bristles to life
over night. No gardener ever planted here who has
not been agreeably surprised by the strong, hearty
and prompt response of the seed planted; for the
sun shines just a little warmer and nature’s voice
calls just a little pleasanter than elsewhere, and the
soft, warm rains interspersed with gentle zephyrs
coaxes to life the slumbering germ in such gentle
language that response is unmistakable and im-
mediate.
We are blessed here not alone with the most
congenial atmosphere, but with the most abundant
rainfall of any state in the Union; still our rains
disturb our labors very little, falling mostly in the
night, and as a rule only at short intervals in the
day-time. No wonder the most prolific shades of
green and gorgeous colored floral, and, last but not
least, the most profitable results are attained. Who has not heard of the profits
derived from a Florida acre? What is estimated an enormous profit in the North is
often considered a partial failure here. It is true, failure sometimes results here; it re-
quires a certain amount of knowledge and prudence, and those who fail regularly
elsewhere are apt to do so here. I say knowledge. Some people think it requires
little or no knowledge to become a truck grower; well, I tell you it does, and brains
are needed in the truck patch as well as anywhere else, or in anything else that re-
quires science. This much, however, is certain, the same knowledge and the same
amount of money applied in truck growing in Florida, particularly in the southern
part, or in the real truck gardening sections, is apt to produce many times the results
obtained elsewhere.
One additional beauty about following the trucking business in Florida is, that
we do all of our labor in the most pleasant and the most profitable time of the year;
so seldom are we interrupted that I usually plan my work and make no allowance
whatever for inclement weather; and I have always enjoyed the pleasures of being
ahead of my work, whereas in the North, as a general rule, I was behind. That same
rule also applied to my bank account, a pleasant little feature that must not be
overlooked.
WALTER WALDIN
Sometimes we find a man who gets disgusted at one thing or another, “pulls
his stakes” and goes elsewhere. I have become so used to seeing them come back
to Florida that I am never surprised, and anyone who wishes to make a fair decision
must have had some knowledge of how the business is done elsewhere in order to
make a fair comparison. My experience has been carried on in a number of different
states, and I think I am telling nothing but the absolute truth in the statement
made here, viz, “THAT FLORIDA HAS MANY INDUCEMENTS NOT OF-
FERED ELSEWHERE.” :
“But no man who can have a piece of land of his own, sufficient by his labor to
subsist his family in plenty, is poor enough to be a manufacturer, and work for a mas-
ter.”— Benjamin Franklin.
Twenty-seven
Making Farm Land in Florida
By Scientifically Constructing a Ditch System to
Take Care of the Natural Rainfall
By WILLIAM L. LARKIN
(Copyright by William L. Larkin, 1914)
N my rambles through Florida, I gathered much information of a scientific
| nature; my visit to the state having been prompted by four apparently just and
sufficient reasons, for I am like the fellow from Missouri, I want ‘‘to be shown”
and told all the whys and wherefores.
I knew that in the state of Florida there were untold acres of lands as fertile
as in the Valley of the Nile; I knew that the state of Florida was practically a flat
country; I knew that much of the land in the state had to be scientifically handled
in order to make it productive; I knew that the largest acreage in the state needed
development; I knew of a number of projects along the east coast of Florida that
are being developed along sane lines, but I wanted to see and be shown, and that is
the excuse for my story.
I saw 45,000 acres of Indian River Farms where a ditch and road development
system is being constructed by the Indian River Farms Company at Vero, Florida.
I made a study of drainage conditions on this entire tract; the record of waterfall
and the capacity of the outlet to take care of the maximum rainfall at all seasons
of the year, and this to my notion is the first requisite to the success of the growers
who are and who will locate in that very wonderful country.
I dug in the muck and marl soil; I convinced myself of the fertility of this vast
project; I studied the market conditions under which the products of this great
colony of workers could be disposed of with profit. I studied the climatic condi-
tions, how long it takes a transplanted business man from the cooler climates of
the North to become thoroughly acclimated to the perpetual ocean breeze where
the average temperature is 70 degrees and the average rainfall is more than 53
inches, which is well distributed during the entire cropping period of twelve months
each year. The changing of home is a serious question to a man and one which
every new home builder should study before investing one dollar in any land project,
no matter how remote or how near to the environment of old home ties and con-
ditions.
I am certainly impressed with the fact that the one and first essential to success
in nearly all sections of Florida is the taking care of the natural rainfall, and this
by artificial means. Florida is a flat country, the highest lands comprise but a small
section of the state; the same condition exists in these high lands as it does in all
sections of the United States. The higher lands are not always quite so fertile as the
lower lands, which in the Northern country would be termed bottom lands. I delved
into the engineers’ figures on the reclamation of this vast project and I found that
William H. Kimball, and the other engineers in charge of the development of Indian
River Farms, based their figures on government figures covering the average rain-
fall for a period of forty years and then increased very greatly the carrying capacity
of their main canals, main laterals and sub-laterals, to guarantee absolute safety
in coping with the elements.
In the construction of the main canal, which begins at the Indian River and
traverses diagonally across Indian River Farms for a distance of some eight miles,
the natural slope of the lands was too great to control the water and prevent wash-
ing of soil out of the channel into the river during the heavy rainy season, so the
engineers constructed a ten-foot steel and concrete spillway to lessen the speed of
the waters into the Indian River. This spillway was built about a mile distant from
the eastern border of this vast tract.
From the engineers’ figures and from personal investigation I found the average
elevation in this tract is about 21 feet. As the law of gravitation has not been re-
pealed, the problem of reclaiming this acreage was a very simple one and included
Twenty-eight
the construction of a main canal, which is about 100 feet in width, a number of main
lateral ditches, which are about 20 to 25 feet in width, and sub-lateral ditches on
every half mile line, which are from 5 to 14 feet in width. This brings a ditch to
every 10, 20, 40 and 160-acre tract and insures absolute safe cropping regardless of
the rainfall. A little more than half the work in this great undertaking is already
complete, indeed much of this vast acreage is included in the completed ditch section
and is ready for planting, and much of it is being planted. Dredges are working
night and day, and in a short period the entire tract will be ready to crop with
absolute guaranty of safety and thereby eliminate the first necessary essential to
success of the grower.
I visited the demonstration farm operated by this company and saw the most
luxuriant crops, consisting of nearly every cereal, fruit, vegetable and forage crop
growing indigenous to a semi-tropical climate.
I visited citrus fruit groves within the boundaries of this vast project, one con-
sisting of eight acres, and some of the trees being more than twenty years old.
From this grove there will be a yield of from 4,000 to 5,000 boxes of oranges and
grapefruit this season.
I inspected as pretty a flock of 200 Rhode Island Red chickens, and as fine a
bunch of Hampshire hogs, and as fine specimens of the Jersey breed of cattle on this
land as you will see in the older and more thickly settled districts of Illinois and
Iowa.
On account of the fertility and the large bodies of marl and muck soil the lands
are suited for diversified farming, cattle, hog and poultry raising, as well as citrus
fruit growing, and are being developed in such a way as to insure the success of
every man who locates in this tract if he is willing to succeed.
One great feature is the favorable impression that every visitor forms of Vero
and the entire project, on account of the environments and comfortable homelike
surroundings of the inhabitants. The residents and land owners seem to be a
prosperous looking class with success stamped on their countenances.
There are many great projects of development now in progress in Florida,
which, conducted along sane lines, must produce a greater return for money invested
than in any other locality in this country. There are many projects under con-
struction that figure into the millions. In fact, millions of acres of idle land in
Florida are waiting for capital to reclaim them and place them on the market. It
is no child’s play, but it takes big business and captains of industry with unlimited
capital to solve the problem of Florida and make it pay out on the capital invested.
St. Lucie County is particularly fortunate from the fact that three big projects
are under way in which millions of dollars are being spent to place these wonder-
fully rich lands in shape to produce untold wealth. The Fellsmere Farms Com-
pany is developing an immense acreage located but a short distance from Vero on
the north; the Fort Pierce Farms Company, a few miles to the south, are bringing
into cultivation a large acreage. All this development must very materially in-
crease land values in this particular section of Florida and at a very rapid rate.
Going on down the east coast into Palm Beach County and Dade County I find
millions being spent by various companies in the development of large projects. The
Palm Beach Farms Company is reclaiming a vast acreage of wet lands in the Lake
Worth district. The Everglades Sugar and Land Company is reclaiming a vast tract
in the Everglades. The Model Land Company is rescuing large tracts in Hills-
borough Valley and Cape Sable. Tatem Brothers are developing a large project
at Detroit. S. T. Johnson organized a drainage district in the highlands of Pinellas
County and now the taxpayers are draining a large acreage by artificial means.
George W. Oliver, President Florida drainage commission, is reclaiming a large
acreage near Bartow, which is a short distance from Lakeland, the highest point in
Florida. With this great development work going on in all parts of the state, Florida
is certainly having her share of prosperity, and, as compared with other sections of
the country, more than her share. Her great resources, her wonderful climate, her
millions of acres of the most fertile land in the world makes it apparent that she
is destined to rank first in food products among all states in years to come.
Twenty-nine
Thirty
OR DE BoN Oya
The Truth About
Florida
Price 25 cents per copy $125 per 1,000
$500 per 5,000 $800 per 10,000
Clip This Coupon and Mail at Once
William L. Larkin, Publisher,
405 Straus Building, Chicago, IIl.
Enclosed please find P. O. Money Order or Draft for
Dollars in payment
for________ copies of THE TRUTH ABOUT FLORIDA.
Name
Address
Producing Beef in Florida
25,000,000 Cattle Shortage in United States
FLORIDA will be the largest producer of beef in this country.
It has the climate and produces 6 to 12 tons of forage crops per
acre. It costs $3.00 to $4.00 to produce a 600 to 800 pound steer
in Florida. By using a dipping outfit and crossing native cows with
immune bulls from Texas, feeding salt and supplying stock with
artesian water that costs nothing, you can increase profits 100%
over present conditions. Read the great 64-page handsomely
illustrated book, just off the press, entitled
“Live Stock Farming in Florida”
It tells you about the GREATEST OPPORTUNITY IN
FLORIDA and how to SUCCEED
Don’t miss reading this great book. Price 20 cents, postpaid, to
any address. Send P.O. or express money order to
J. E. INGRAHAM, Vice-President Florida East Coast Ry.
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
St. Martha’s School St. Mary’s School
KNOXVILLE, ILLINOIS For Girls and Young Women
REOPENS JANUARY FIFTH
NEW TERM OPENS JANUARY SECOND The Rev C. W. LEFFINGWELL, Rector and Founder
A beautiful school home for twenty Graduates of St. Mary’s are developed
ts coke fram fice to Gitech under ideal surroundings, morally,
g : intellectually and physically.
- SteMarthas School. Knoxville i}
For younger Girls, 5 to !5 years
Organized work and organized play under the | The daughters of many of the oldest and
direction of specialists. Six acres of playground, finest families of the country have been
lawns, groves and gardens, furnish abundant | educated here.
space for a wholesome outdoor life. There is a |
large playroom for stormy weather. St. Martha’s
is affiliated with St. Mary’s, for older girls.
For further information address MISS E. P. HOWARD, Principal
MISS E. P. HOWARD : Knoxville, Illinois KNOXVILLE, ILLINOIS
For further information address
Thirty-one
Notel Burhridge .
Room ana Bath
fora
Dollar anda Half
STRICTLY MODERN
ABSOLUTELY FIREPROOF
EVERY ROOM WITH
PRIVATE BATH
( SERVICE FIRST )}
WM. BURBRIDGE, Proprietor
Mr. Land Colonizer:
SALES MANAGER
WANTED
Must have sufficient capital
or credit to carry on a well-
planned publicity campaign,
with ability to organize an
handle a large selling force.
Good offer to right party. We own
60,000 acres of the choicest land
in Florida for general farming, fruits
and vegetable growing.
This tract is in a proven district 20
miles from Jacksonville, where a standard
of value based on actual production can
be furnished.
For complete information address
JENNINGS LAND CO.
DYAL UPCHURCH BUILDING
JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA
Thirty-two
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
INVEST NOW
AND WATCH YOUR
DOLLARS GROW
MAGNETIC
CMIAMI
MAGIC CITY OF THE SOUTH
Conservative estimate of population 1920, 50,000
MIAMI SUBURBAN PROPERTY,
34 acre lots one mile from city
finite’ 100 ft. on Boulevard, each $750
Am offering this ground floor investment within
reach of everybody on easy terms.
$10 DOWN and $10 PER MONTH
Let us reserve you a lot today.
CHICKEN FARMS, one acre or more,
$100 per acre and up.
Large Lots in ORANGE PARK and
BISCAYNE HEIGHTS, near car line,
$400 each.
Your money back if you are not pleased
For full particulars write
WALTER WALDEN INVESTMENT CO.
MIAMI, FLORIDA
For Sale in Southern Florida
WHOLESALE ONLY
We own over a million acres of selected lands located in the Counties of Volusia,
Osceola, St. Lucie, Polk, Hillsboro, Manatee, DeSoto and Lee, and are now offering’ same
in blocks of from. three to five thousand acres and upward.
Practically all of these holdings carry their virgin growth of Long Leaf Yellow Pine
and Cypress timber, and the soil is adapted to general farming purposes, and, by reason
of the climatic conditions, to winter trucking, citrus and other fruit growing, as well
as live stock of all kinds.
A large acreage lies within the artesian or flowing well section of the state.
Railroads recently constructed and proposed will give splendid transportation facili-
ties to the larger part of these holdings.
We invite the correspondence of those interested.
cADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO
CONSOLIDATED LAND COMPANY
CONSOLIDATED BUILDING JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
PexaCGTICAL BOOKS
CITRUS CULTURE VEGETABLES
MELONS anp CUCUMBERS
IRISH POTATOES STRAWBERRIES
SENT FREE ON REQUEST
WILSON & TOOMER FERTILIZER CO.
Manufacturers of Ideal Fertilizers. JACKSONVILLE, FLA.
Pe, YOU
about to issue a new
EROSPE@EUS
Have it Designed, Engraved and Printed
by those who know how.
WE DO
And we shall be glad to prove it upon request.
MUELLER- BLICKHAHN COMPANY
Engravers and Printers
Land Company Specialists
124 POLK STREET CHICAGO, ILL.
Phone Harrison 1375 — Local and Long Distance.
Thirty-three
“Within the Mind Maze
A NEW BOOK CONTAINING A NEW VIEW
of MIND, MAN AND LIFE
THIS BOOK APPROACHES THE MAJESTIC STUDY OF PRIMORDIAL MIND BY
ENTIRELY NEW METHODS AND THE USE OF NEW TERMS.
A BOOK NEAR THE BASE OF NATURE
MENTOIDS AND ELECTRONS.
By EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN
Director of The Lowe Astronomical Observatory
MOUNT LOWE :: CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.
This Book Actually Is the Law of the Mind
T SHOWS MAN'S PLACE in the Astronomic Universe
and Mind Universe. ({ New terms, methods and words are
used because of the RECENT DISCOVERIES IN PHYSICAL
AND MENTAL SCIENCE. ( New researches in Mind, Life,
Electricity, are presented in accurate and popular language without
unnecessary technicalities. (The relation of MAN and MIND
to the new Electronic base of Nature is given in detail.
QA riddle of the universe much more recent than that proposed
by Haeckel is given. (|The enigmas are of a new order. They
are based on Mentoids. (MIND PROBLEMS ARE THE
GREATEST BEFORE MAN NOW.
“Within the Mind Maze”
Price by Mail to all offices in Postal Union, $1.25 or 5s. 3d.
Address all orders to EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN, Lock Box No. 1643
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.
J ) 5 = a oy
Make all orders payable on Los Angeles
Thirty-four
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
MILI
}
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3 006 1949
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