Show THE LAND OF ORANGES SAILING UP THE ST JOHNS AND INDIAN RIVERS What Florida Is and Something About Her Products Orange Raising and Its Profits The Freeze of 1886South FlorIdaSenator Slamlcrsons Admirer i Special Correspondence ON THE INDIAN RIVER Fla March 14 How little is known of Florida still it is one of the largest states of the Union in size and it is growing as fast as any state of the south It was one of the first parts of America Amer-ica discovered and settlements were made upon it when the country west of the Alto ghanies was a wilderness Yet for 300 years it remained practically unknown and today there are parts of it almost as unexplored as the valley of the Congo Florida is the Italy of AmeIica It is a long narrow peninsula running into the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic on the other bounded on the top by Georgia and having a long handle reaching over under the state of Alabama It contains 53000 square miles and is nearly once and onehalf the size of Ohio eleven times as large as Connecticut and forty times as big as Rhode Island You could put Massachusetts Mas-sachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut New Hampshire New Jersey and Delaware in Florida and have room for half a dozen Rhode Islands tb spare It is larger by Massachusetts than New York and larger by Now Hampshire than Louisiana I It is 700 miles from its western end down to its termination at the south and its average breadth is less than 90 miles Its surface is level and its highest point is only 300 feet iibovo the level of the sea It has thousands of miles of navigable rivers one of which the St Johns runs 400 miles northward and it has numerous lakes one of which Lake Okeclio bee is the largest fresh water body wholly in any one state of the Union and which covers 530 square miles of ground The climate of Florida seldom goes below 30 degs in then the-n and not above 90 degs in the summer and the average mean temperature of the state is 73 degs Today is early in March and the air is so hot in oar special car that we have perspired sitting with open windows and without overcoats in a train going at the rate of thirty miles an hour I am told that most of the winter is as warm as an Ohio June and I never found pleasanter weather than that we had sailing up the St Johns river ik I r HARHICT BEECUER STOWES HOME The St Johns is a wonderful stream and it arries one back to the stories of the Wfcsis ippi in slavery days I had imagined it a imrioiv swampy creek rather than one of the mighty rivers of the continent and I was sur prKed to find it in many places wider than the Nile at Cairo and to be told that it car ied a body of water equal to the Amazon This must however be an exaggeration With its branches it affords 1000 miles of navigable water transportation and it is 400 iriles long Near Jacksonville it is an arm of the sea and miles above it it is a great clear inland lake which winds about in great sweeps and on the banks of which are seen here and there i the winter residences of rich men and the homes of settlers Long wooden wharves reach out into it at these setttlements and a glass will show you the yellow oranges on the trees surrounding the houses Sc entccn miles above Jacksonville is Harriet Beecher Stowes winter home It is a modern frame cottage overlooking the great river and it shows out among the vines and trees as the boat goes by The surroundings surround-ings of the cottage are similar to some of tho country of Uncle Toms Cabin and it does not seem strange that the authoress should live m the south amid the freed slaves whose terrible story of the past she told so well wellJacksonville Jacksonville looks like a great city when viewed from the river It has a magnificent water front and tho immense hotels showing show-ing up in the town would lead to the supposition sup-position that tho town had 100000 people instead of 20000 Ocean steamers lie at these wharves and this is the shipping port for the greater part of Florida It will be a great city some day and I understand that real estate es-tate values are away up already Tho St Johns is one of the few rivers within the boundaries of the United States that run north Its course is through tho eastern part of tho peninsula and our steamer carried us 200 miles against its slow current south from Jacksonville to Sandford The country through which it passes is picturesquely tropical Palmettees and live oaks line its low banks and a jungle equal to that of the great Dismal Swamp extends at times forman for-man miles at a stretch The first part of our ride through tho wide part of the river where it is five or six miles from bank to bank gave us ono of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen in any country The waters turned from steel to gold and assumed all the colors of the rainbow as the sun a great ball of fire set behind tho palmetto trees It left for an hour after its setting a panoramic view of the most gorgeous colors on river and sky where the gold and silver in the clouds were only surpassed by that of the rippling golden waves which seemed to wash upon silver sands at the shore We rode all night upon this wonderful river and the moon came up and made more weird the tropical scone surrounding us The air was so warm balmy and soft that we sat without our overcoats or wrap on the deck of the boat and felt as comfortable as did Lorenzo and Jessica when soliloquizing in the moonlight of Italy x The trees were loaded down with Spanish moss which hung like sable silver boards from their numerous branches the palniettoes with their tall round trunks bore aloft their palmy heads in the moonlight and the only things heard were the rush of the steamer through the water and now and then the splash of some animal in tho water We awoke to find the river narrowed so that at times our boat seemed to almost touch the banks and so that we could now and then sec a great ugly ciocodilo lying upon tho shore or scurrying through the water to get out of the way of the boat Tropical birds now began to appear and we saw cranes pelicans herons and buzzards with two large eagles The air was again liko June and the banks of the low black river were swampy and low There were cypress and palmetto trees by the thousands and thousands of tons of this Spanish moss hung to the branches of all kinds of trees eating up their vitality and in many cases clinging to the trees after their bare branches showed that the life of the tree had long since passed away We saw numerous wild flowers and the swalhps were full of living green The ground was black and I um told that it is the richest of black loam It will probably lx utilized some dny hut it will be when then the-n t of our vacant hinds arc tilled antI we begin to redeem the swamps by dykes even ns Holland is dyked today t I A CHARACTERISTIC SCENE At Sandford we found the biggest town on the St Johns above Jacksonville It has five railroads and about 3000 people It is on the beautiful Lake Monroe into which the river expands at this point and is in the center of a rich orange growing territory Lake Monroe Mon-roe makes one think of the Mediterranean near Alexandria and one has to shut his eyes and reason to convince himself that he is still in the United States The palmettos rising from the islands the lake in the distance dis-tance look like a view ef the African shores and the sky and the sun and the whole aspect of nature is tropical This lake is twelve miles long and five miles wide Its banks are dotted with settlements and the banana the lemon and the orange grow upon it We visited the orange grove of a Mr Bodine of New York at Enterprise on Lake Monroe from whence we took the cars for Indian river and picked the golden balls of luscious fruit from their green leaves with our own hands Some of the trees we were told yielded as much as 40 worth of fruit every year and I have heard of orange trees which yield from 5i5 to 100 worth of fruit annually A good orange grove in Florida is indeed a fortune Five acres in bearing is enough to keep a man from want and there is a five and onehalf acre grove here at Sandford which produces from 10000 to 12000 worth of oranges yearly It is famous and is known as the Spiers grove In 18S6 just before the big frost some Baltimore fruit dealers called upon its owners and offered them 12000 for the oranges on the trees as they then stood They refused intending to market them themselves and expecting to net 15000 Two weeks later the big frost came and they lost almost their entire crop Their gross receipts were I understand only 200 or800 This big frost cost Florida the greater part of its orange crop and lost the state more than 000000 It hurt the bearing of the trees for this year and it is apprehended by some orange growers that it will take them another year after this before they fully recover It gave Florida orange growers a decided set back and they have not as yet regained their enthusiasm Still orange lands are very high and they range in the vicinity of settlements from 25 to 100 an acre unimproved Some orange lands are worth 500 an acre and there ore some I am told which could not be bought for 1000 an acre A good grove in bearing will sell for a fortune and the five acres of the Spiers grove which I spoke of as producing 10000 worth of oranges is estimated as being worth 100000 It takes from five to ten years to grow an orange grove and new groves are fast coming into bearing They bear for generations and there are good orange trees which are hundreds of years old Each good tree produces many oranges ometimcs several thousands and I have been told that there are trees which Iroduce 4000 5000 and 7000 oranges yearly At a cent apiece on the tree which price can be usually gotten it will be seen that this is a nice investment The orange industry of Florida has increased tenfold in five years In 1680 only 100000 boxes were shipped out of the state while in 16S4 and 885 the exports were 1000000 boxes and their value 1500000 The United States eats it is estimated 000000000 of oranges yearly enough to give each man woman and child ten oranges and not more than onetenth of this amount is raised here The Florida oranges are better than any other and Florida will one day supply the country As to the profits of orange raising per acre its it-s estimated that an average acre planted in oranges or-anges produces when well taken care of 000 per acre or 40 times more than an average acre of cotton 51 times the value of an acre of wheat audi aud-i 75 times the value of an acre of corn estimating 30 bushels of corn to the acre and SO bushels of wheat I PALMETTOES The Indian river country on the east coast of Florida is another splendid orange raising region and at one of the hotels where we stopped the Indian River hotel at Rockledge we found a wire basket holding two bushels of oranges on the counter and a placard over it labeled Exclusively Exclu-sively for the use of our guests This basket is kept always full and it is free to all who stop at the hotel The backwardness of Florida in manufacturing manu-facturing is shown in the fact that most of the boxes in which this immense crop of oranges is sent north are brought here from Maine They are brought in pieces ready to be nailed together and are sent north again filled with fruit We saw bales of these boxes on some of the wharves and saw the negroes picking the oranges and packing them away for market This Indian river is said to be the straightest body of water in theworld A straight line can be drawn through seventyfive miles of its course without touching either shore It is on the east ern coast of Florida and is a wide arm of the sea which is separated from the Atlantic by a narrow strip of land from half a mile to three miles in width Tins strip of land contains some excellent orange soil and this is worth in a wild state I a old 500 per acre The river i saltwater and it abounds in game and fish We saw hundreds of ducks in our soil up to Rockledge and at times thee were so tame that they could have been shot from the steamers deck The best of this land here is already taken and we found prosperous pros-perous groves and big winter hotels everywhere It seems strange here 1000 miles from New York York t find hotels as good a those at Saratoga or Long Branch and stranger still to find them filled with well dressed men and women who have come here for comfort during the winter just as they would jo to the seashore for the summer Here at the Indian river I found rooms heated by steam great parlors carpeted and elegantly furnished wide verandas billiard rooms and a the comforts of he great American hotel It is the same every where we have gone Our palates have been tickled with French cookery and we have been waited upon by waiters who have had their train ug at the north This Indian river country produces the best in the world and the senatorial oranges snatoria party have feasted upon luscious fruit which they have licked themselves from the trees The flesh of thee oranges is solid They a heavy and sweet and they bring big prices in the markets of the north Even in Florida they are in great demand and they a worth S a box at Jacksonville Many of the growers sell them here on the trees and I understand that most of the product of Florida is disposed of in this way The greater part of the California orange crop i bought by Italians on the trees and Italians it is said con trol the orange market of California as they do hat of Italy But I started this letter with the growth of Florida I i growing rapidly and its popula ion iu 1685 was nearly twice that of ISO It built more railway track in 1S35 than any other state of the Union and settlements a springing up a along the lines of the new roads We found be ween Sandford and Titusville to which point we came to take the boat up the Indian river much cultivated and cleared lands and I a told that south Florida i beginning to b developed by the Cubans T port of Florida contains a great grazing country and in ten years 25000i worth of cattle have been evoorted from it f 1 Great quantities of it are under water and millions of acres can never b used Other millions are being reclaimed and of these I will tell you in a future letter These regions a to be the great sugar producing regions of the United States and Florida men tell me that most of our cocoanuts will in the near future b produce here We now import many millions of cocoanuts cocoa-nuts yearly and the value of these runs into the millions of dollars One firm in New Orleans imported im-ported in 16S5 over 5000000 cocoanuts and 2000 000 were used in the St Louis manufactories annually an-nually Pineapples and bananas are also raised in south Florida and the future progress of this part of the state is only a matter of time Add to the oranges and this great tropical production duction of south Florida the vegetable products pro-ducts amounting to many thousands of dollars yearly the strawberries which bring here now twentyfive cents a quart and of which the stole produced in 16S5 290000 quarts the vast timl T interests of north Florida and remembering tl t the state is bigger than New York with a chmc e as pleasant as flat of the south of France w it lout l-out the earthguakes of the Riviera and you will feel that Florida is worth investigation as a place for emigration and residence tit ti-t PICKING ORXKQE3 Everywhere we have gone so far we have found a preponderance of northerners and the senators of the party have met old friends at nearly every landing Senator Palmer has found Michigan men on every boat and so far the Obio men who have shaken the hands of Senatois Sherman and Manderson their name has been legion Gen McUpok h found several of tue old soldiers of his command among the men about the hotels and on the trains and one farmerlikc man watched him curiously a long time at Jacksonville and only learned that it was the general after he had pone out for a drive Ana is tlt Gen McOookj said he with an injured in-jured air II thought EO but I was afraid I was mistaken I fought under him and I want to ste him when he comes back There were numerous funny incidents connected con-nected with the trin and we met cueer charaofTS leercrtnr at every station te was tae pobunaster o e tow and a black mustached black eyed young fellow of 3 accosted Senator Manderson with a aearty greeting and said Senator I admire you greatly I have read all your speeches and I Lave a stack of them at home a big as a Bible The Nebraska senator blushed and was the more surprised when he found from the young man quoting some of his remarks in the senate that he was telling the truth We are now on the boat steaming back up the great Indian river to Titusville We will rea h there at 1 oclock and will there find our special car which will take us to Tampa bay from whence we will sail for Cuba FRANK G CARPENTER |