The Sunland Tribune (Tampa, Florida), August 4, 1877, page 1, column 6, cont'd pg. 4, col. 1
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[From Wisconsin State Journal]
Our Florida Letter
LIMONA FARM
11 MILES EAST OF TAMPA
FLORIDA, June 15, 1877.
THE OUT-GOING SWARM
Wisconsin, like all other hives is sending forth its swarms of immigrants. The causes which end them are nearly as numerous as are the immigrants. One is crowded for room, and wants more land, and he goes West, where land is cheap, and spreads himself over half a section, or a township of the plains of Kansas, and writes back that the wild, vile-scented sunflowers grow 10 feet high, and corn and wheat must grow is sown; but he takes good care not to intimate that there is not a tree nor bush within fifty miles of his wash, where the sunflowers are; and away go ten men in his wake, crying out "we have found it," on the Kansas Pacific of on the Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Railroad.
Another tires of the long cold winters and hears of the hot springs in Arkansas, and away he goes; and choosing in winter, he finds himself in summer near a sluggish slough of the river, wheer mosquitoes are trying to guard the stagnate water, and keep men from inhaling the noxious vapors of the swamps. Find one of these in August, see his tawny, cadaverous skin, and feel his fevered pulse, and ask him why he is there, and you get for reply, "corn grows large, if I cannot gather it; and hogs live in the woods." Another has heard that "cotton is king," and buys a plantation down South, and undertakes a business that he knows nothing of - one in which the probabilities are ten to one against him - and fails in cotton planting, and so turns carpet-bagger. Those he thought to outwit have got his money, and have a good laugh at his folly. Still another swarm has gone forth in quest of gold to the Black Hills. This is a vast band, made up of the robust, active energetic, but uneasy element; all men, and like another army, about as liable to meet their fate in death, as if they marched to war. Excitement carries them on, a long line, where disappointment is about as sure as at a gambling table. News of the golden fleece equipped and armed the Argos of old. Gold has ever since set the human family in motion, and hurled nations to destruction, as well as men.
ONE PLACE IS QUIET
Not the grave, but on terra firma, where the most delightful atmosphere fans the cheek with the breath of health; where, the cold pinches not, coughs do not require medicines, fevers do not burn, and the inhabitants can say, "I am not sick;" where, the genial climate, bright sunshine, and abundant rains, bring forth from the easily wrought soil, almost every tree pleasant to the eyeand fruit grateful to the taste. The nutritious corn places its ears in the lap of industry from the first of May till the taste requies other food. The luscious melon greets the palate as early, and ceases when men cease to plant the seeds. The lime and lemon meet the sugar in a rich beverage, while the golden orange and larger grape fruit and shaddock cool and cheer the palate. The pine-apple shows its beautiful blushing fruit in the midst of its thorn-pointed leaves; and from the crown of broad leaves, hangs the luscious bananas, giving almost as large an amount of human sustenance as the royal date; that in oriental language plunges its foot into the water, and its head into the fires of Heaven. Even this last will grow. The sweetest of grapes and richest figs, the oily olive, and spices would thrive.
Over all this, quiet reigns. Neither MILTON not the Bible represent these gold-paved streets, resounding with the click of the pick, of pounding of the stamp mill. Peace, pleasure, rest, and happiness do not indulge in loud noises; so the vicinity of which, and from which we write, is one of quiet, and nobody is going to look at it. Humbugs make noises, ???????????? deals in plain facts, and in unostentatious tones. The crowd runs after the former; the latter has few followers. Dead wood will fill with wriggling, struggling, excitable people; Limona's greater and juster claims will go unheeded. All this is natural.
WHAT WE HAVE SEEN AT LIMONA
Just seventeen months ago, we drove to the old, dilapidated, doorless and windowless house, and spread our bed on the floor, after cooking a hasty meal in the open fire-place. Turning into a Yankee, we improvised doors and cut windows, after some days of January ???? in the ?????? habitation, we felled the dead pines in the field, and removed such stumps and grubs as were least firmly ?????? ????? the ground, and planted ?????. ??????? ???? pretending that we were ruining the land by deep plowing, of plowing at all. But ??? ???? ?????? less with the May d???? than theirs and gave us as good a yield. We plowed again, burying in the grass and weeds, which has covered the land. We plowed again and found the grass rotted, and planted a second time, and now we have had green corn to eat, since the 7th of May, and a better stand of corn than those who said our land was spoiled. Their corn is nearly ruined by drought, ours has suffered but little. ???? ???? ???? hills of one stalk; we have ???? ???? ???? our ears as large as theirs to ???? ????? spoiling our land with the plow, ????? ????? ????? enriched, and in a very few years, we expect to see it as rich as the best of ???? ??????? ????. We set banana roots a little more than a year ago, and they ahve on them the immense clubs of spathes, levering the flowers, for the young fruit is growing. By the way, bananas are the quickest fruit ?? ??? produce from the start: 1,100 little ????? ????? growing in their place, and ???? ????? are doing well. Some ???? ???? ???? ???? ?ilson have this year made six feet of wood; and by the end of two years on the p????, our fruit will cover ten acres of land.
TWELVE HOMSTEADS HAVE BEEN TAKEN
All the ??? ???? ????? adjoin those that do. These have been taken during the past eight months. A few are loft, but will be gone ??? ????. At the land office, a homestead costs $7 for forty ot eighty acres, $12 for 120, and $14 for 160. To act in Tampa through agents will cost a dollar more. This is the nearest approach that Uncle Sam makes to giving men farms. Desiring that some Wisconsin man might share in the rich spoils of these homesteads we have spoken of the country in plain positive terms, but no stronger than the truth appeared to us. But Wisconsin men do not want to share with us half as much as they want to be killed by Indians, or die of cold and exposure in the Black Hills, or shake with ague and burn with fever in Kansas, or expire from consumption in Wisconsin.
A HOMESTEAD CAN BE SEEN NOT TWO MILES AWAY
There are pine trees on every acre that may be hewed, each 40 feet. If these were placed end to end, they would reach 640,000 feet. There is not a waste foot of land on it; not a stone to hinder the plow; pure water can be obtained in a well less than fifty feet at any point, every twenty feet square would grow an orange tree that in twelve years from the planting of the seed would yield 2,000 oranges annually, or 16,000 trees on the 160 acres or a produce of 32,000,000 fuits, at one cent a ????, giving an income of $320,000. Will a farm in Wisconsin give as great an ???? ???? ???? hold as many grape fruits, ????, lemons, limes or citrons, which ???? ???? fruits of equal value. If set to ???? it would require 1,410 plants to the acre, which would give a bunch of fruit annually after the first year, and at 25 cents each amounting to $800 an acre. Planted to the fine grapes of Maluga, Sicily, or Egypt, if cultivated after the method of Palastine or Spain, would take 1,640? vines to the acre, yielding 15 pounds of raisins to the vine, or a ???? ???? grape wine. No frost will kill the vine, nor mildew injure the fruit. It could grow more date or olive trees than there are pines on it now. It can be cleared of trees, the stump removed, ????ed, and ????ted to receive its stock of fruits for $12 an acre. The crops which may be taken wil the trees are growing will pay all expense?? ?? their culture. An expenditure of fruit five to ten dollars an acre, in covering it with manure, would make the soil sufficiently productive to yield ??? pounds ????? ????? 5,000 pounds of ?????? ????? ????? ????? loca.
THE MOST HEALTHFUL AND ?????? ????? COVER????
The mercury never falls to 2? ???? ??? 100o. Breezes fan it and the sun ??? ?? it each day in the year. ????? ???? ???? never visit its occupants; consumption ???? ???? never come to him and rheumatism ???? ????dom if ever twinge his joints. A wa????? ?? on horseback, a drive, a seat in the ???? where he may read a book write to ????? with a friend, is pleasant every day im every year. No poisonous snakes are on it and no mosquitoes or flies annoy his rest or sleep. He can pick a flower, each day from ??? open ground, and weave a bouquet for a friend. His children can run, romp, jump, play in the open air, laugh and grow healthy, robust and strong.
IT IS NOT ONE, IT IS HUNDREDS
However desirous we might be that these should be taken by men like those who ???? Wisconsin ???? ???? will ?? come to see whether we recite the truth or not. The present generation of Wisconsin will go among the ?hoppers of ???????, the droughts of Kansas, in the ??? ??? gold in the Rocky ranges ???? ?????? ???? better advantages of Florida have ??? ??? ????? for them; and other people will possess them. They may write a letter that would require a book to answer, but the writer has no intention of coming ??? even to see for himself. Our efforts will be turned in a different direction, for people to ??? up this almost paradise. We are convinced that there is not a person in Wisconsin, ???? will ever come to this county, until all the ???? choices are taken, nor will they come ???? ????? they can ride here in a ???? ???. When Limona farm shall be ???? ?000 an acre they may come to see it. They cannot buy that homestead then. Moneybags, not ?? ???? ???? ??? guard the gate to this. ???? ???? they come. They ??? ????. They ??? a lie and ??? to be ????? ????.
??????? ??????? ??? SET IN
?????????????? season of all the ???????????????????? its hands and ?????????????? health!
G. KNAPP
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