A few years ago, three brothers, farmers, from Vermont, exhausted by the
long, hard winters there, came to Florida to try an experiment. They
bought two hundred and seventy-five acres in the vicinity of Mandarin at
one dollar per acre. It was pine-land, that had been cut over twice for
timber, and was now considered of no further value by its possessor, who
threw it into the hands of a land-agent to make what he could of it. It
was the very cheapest kind of Florida land.
Of this land they cleared only thirty-five acres. The fencing cost two
hundred dollars. They put up a large, unplastered, two-story house, with
piazzas to both floors, at a cost of about a thousand dollars. The
additional outlay was on two mules and a pair of oxen, estimated at four
hundred dollars. The last year, they put up a sugar-mill and
establishment at a cost of five hundred dollars.
An orange-grove, a vineyard, and a peach-orchard, are all included in
the programme of these operators, and are all well under way. But these
are later results. It is not safe to calculate on an orange-grove under
ten years, or on a vineyard or peach-orchard under four or five.
We have permission to copy _verbatim_ certain memoranda of results with
which they have furnished us.