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COPYRIGHT, 1936, BY
JULES M. BURGUIERES
W RA WRY
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FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AGO
the attention of the then civilized world was focused upon
the peninsula of Florida, surrounded by the sunkissed waters
of the Gulf of Mexico and the warm waters of the Gulf
Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. At that time they sought
health and wealth, but they searched for it in a different
form than it is found today; they sought nuggets of gold and
overlooked the gold that a kind nature forces from the soil
each year; they sought health from some mythical body of
water and overlooked the health that comes from the sun-
shine and trade winds that refresh the peninsula and those
who inhabit it.
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0
he expeditions to Florida in the sixteenth cen-
tury were part of one of the great significant
movements of people that have changed the history
of the entire world. In more recent years another
migration to Florida has been in progress which, from all
appearances, is far from ended and which future historians
will probably weigh as significantly as our historians of to-
day view that former movement to a New World. The
migration of today has for its objective the same things that
the Spaniards sought four centuries ago, namely, health and
wealth; the essential difference between these two quests
is-the pioneer of today finds what the Spaniards did not,
only in another form. The story of Ponce de Leon and the
story of Bill Jones are much the same; human nature does
not change.
T 00 much has been said and written about the spec-
ulative fortunes made and lost in Florida and too little
about the underlying strata of fundamental values. In Flor-
ida, as well as elsewhere, there have been many ill-advised
purchases made in the expectation of quick profits from un-
known sources. Unintelligent purchase of stocks, bonds, real
estate or a business enterprise is pure gambling without the
redeeming feature of knowledge of that fact on the part of
the person parting with hard earned cash if he knew he
were gambling he might enjoy it, but
thinking that he is making an investment
makes the loss doubly hard to bear.
,-BE
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IT must not be assumed that all Florida land is of
high value, in fact fundamental land values with-
in a restricted area or section of Florida vary widely. There is a
great deal of land in Florida, as there is in every other State of
the Union, which is of little apparent value either for agricultural
or other purposes. Most agricultural production in the State re-
quires the liberal use of fertilizer, which requirements vary as
widely as do the types of soil. No magical method has been
discovered in Florida of obtaining riches from the soil without
first putting into the soil capital, labor, intelligence and manage-
ment, although the result per unit is probably greater in Florida
than elsewhere. Agricultural failures in Florida have been
almost uniformly due to lack of sufficient capital, shiftlessness or
ignorance.
WHILE it is to the tourist traffic that Florida looks
in the first instance For future growth, thought-
Ful persons are looking far beyond the seasonal visitor
toward the ultimate occupation of the more than twenty
million acres of arable land by permanent settlers, winning
from the land a comfortable living, health, happiness and
contentment and thereby multiplying the wealth of the State
many fold. These same responsible and far-seeing persons
are also looking toward the creation of industry through use
of the raw products of the State and thus extending to an
ever widening circle the benefit of life in a semi-tropical
State.
--a
--a
o
HE really great development of the agricultural re-
sources of Florida will probably be brought about
through the development of large agricultural tracts involv-
ing the investment of considerable capital with competent
supervision and management coupled with the later resale
to individual farmers, and the continuation of supervision
and instruction in best methods. Outstanding developments
include tobacco at Quincy, strawberries at Plant City, pota-
toes at Hastings, celery at Sanford, cane sugar in the Ever-
glades, citrus throughout the State and winter vegetables
in South Florida. All of this bears eloquent testimony to out-
standing agricultural achievement in diversified produce.
FLORIDA with a low density of population, many mil-
lions of acres of untouched fertile soil, an equable cli-
mate, high productivity possibilities and nearness to the
great consuming industrial population of the north and east,
offers outstanding possibilities for the profitable develop-
ment of her agricultural resources along modem lines. Such
development is inherently speculative and should only be
undertaken with a complete and thorough un-
derstanding of that fact, but it likewise con-
tains all of the elements of profitable risk, the
potentialities of which increase more rapidly as
the country enters either prosperity or inflation.
O Henry M. Flagler, who opened the Florida East
Coast, and Henry B. Plant who opened the Florida
West Coast, the residents not only of Florida but of all the
States east of the Mississippi River as well as those who
enjoy her equable climate and recreational facilities and
those who desire her health restoring and invigorating cli-
mate, owe a debt of gratitude beyond measurement and
which, no matter what is done, can never be paid. Florida
is, surprising as it may seem to many who enjoy her gifts, the
last frontier. Florida's long line of able and conscientious
public servants, casting aside the many opportunities and
even the thought of personal gain, have always led the way
in able honest government and have insisted on the same
standards in local government and thus have given to the
visitor the feeling of stability engendered in the more
densely populated centers of
the country. ..
-Ii
NO tour of Florida is complete unless the tourist has
visited the oldest city in the United States, walked
its narrow streets and visited its fort, and the Fountain of
Youth, St. Augustine. Tampa with its "foreign" Ybarra City
and legends of Gasparilla is well worth the necessary time
on the same trip can be seen the Circus quarters and Art
Museum at Sarasota, the sponge fisheries at Tarpon Springs
and the phosphate mines to the north and east. The Bok
Tower, set in the lovely hills of Lake Wales, surrounded by
miles and miles of well kept orange groves makes one pause
in contemplation of the wonders of nature assisted by the
well directed efforts of man.
LORIDA is lacking in both snow-capped
mountains and arid desert wastes, but it contains most other
topographical features to be found anywhere in America,
from almost tropical verdure and atmosphere to regions that
resemble portions of New England. In general, the northern
and western part is hilly or rolling country, the foothills of
the Appalachian Mountains rising west of the Suwanee
River. North and south through the center of the State, from
the Georgia line almost to Lake Okeechobee, is a range of
hills or highlands whilst the lower part of the State lies to
the south and southwest of Lake Okeechobee. Northern
Florida is underlaid with limestone, while southern Florida
is built upon coral rock. The greater portion of the coast
line is protected by islands or keys.
W HILE but little attention
is paid to it today, the Tamiami Trail, almost three hundred
miles long, from Tampa to Miami, is an outstanding engi-
neering accomplishment. In the making it holds a story of
indomitable courage and perseverance, many years of toil
and great hardships, unbelievable suffering and many
deaths. The highway existed at the turn of the century only
in the dreams of farseeing Florida pioneers, but on March
27,1927 it was an accomplished fact, when those who had
fought their way across the peninsula in 1892 and were still
alive, traveled the Trail in automobiles. Today a leisurely
trip across the Trail is well repaid in the sights of Seminole
villages, water hyacinths, orchids, white and blue egrets,
blue and green herons and bitterns as well as enormous
cypress trees as interesting as the great trees of the far west.
A CIRCLE trip of Southern Florida crossing in one
direction on the Tamiami Trail and in the other
the Sugarland Highway reveals the beauty, productivity
and healthful climate of Southern Florida. On the East Coast
are Palm Beach, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Hialeah and
Miami; on the West Coast Fort Myers, Tampa, Sarasota and
St. Petersburg; in the interior, Indian villages, the Big Cy-
press Swamp, the Everglades, the Bok Tower, sugar plan-
tations, citrus groves and phosphate mines. Central Florida
has the great ocean beach speedway, the citrus highlands,
the romantic Silver Springs with many legends of old Indian
and early settler days. Northern Florida with great tracts of
turpentine pine and other forests, large sawmilling opera-
tions, cotton plantations, melon, celery, tobacco and
potato areas well repays the time necessary to see them.
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F LORIDA is unique in that its climate, soil, produce,
geography, topography, birds, beasts, fishes, trees and
flowers are, in many instances, outside the experience of all
other portions of these United States. A delightful climate,
overnight from the great population centres of the northeast
section of the country, furnishes the reason for the heavy
tourist traffic during the winter months. The fact that the
heavy tourist traffic is limited to four months should not create
the impression that Florida is uninhabitable during the rest
of the year. The temperature of Miami during the summer
months compares favorably with that of the large eastern
seaboard cities in the north, with the advantage that the
tradewinds that prevail during the summer months in South
Florida render summer temperatures more endurable. Flor-
ida has more to thank than its southern location for its equa-
ble climate; it is almost an island between the Atlantic
Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
LORIDA, with about
twenty million acres of untouched fertile soil, abundant
rainfall, twenty-two hundred miles of seacoast, well estab-
lished and growing cities, splendid schools, public libraries,
thousands of miles of hard surfaced roads giving access to
every portion of the State, a health giving and health restor-
ing climate, a low death rate, abundant game supplies,
bathing beaches, golf links and railroad facilities, offers
unexcelled attractions and opportunities.
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FLORIDA has apparently always been the habitat of
the land boom; the first real estate Hurry apparently
being in 1559; the City of St. Joseph boom in the
early years of the nineteenth century had all earmarks of
the land boom of recent memory and while the last boom
is probably still to come, it is interesting to note that land
values in Florida show a constant trend upward.
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HE Everglades with its mys-
Iterious legends, both old
and new, is always fascinating.
The stories of its remarkable pro-
duction and fertility of soil fur-
nish occasion for wonder and
amazement. The tales of Mun-
chausen sound plausible in com-
parison with the reported yields
of sugar-cane, vegetables and
other products. There seems to
be always something growing
in the Everglades and crops
succeed each other with sur-
prising rapidity. There are great tomato and cabbage
fields, as well as many crops of beans during the year.
Sometimes in a single year there is a fortune to the grower,
but despite such results the haphazard purchase of prop-
erties there will probably result in failure, although intelli-
gent purchase and capable operation will show greater
returns per dollar invested than probably any other area
in the world.
THE northern boundary of
Florida is south of the southern boundary of California; the
greater part of Texas and Louisiana are north of the north-
ern boundary of Florida. South Florida is almost in the same
latitude as the Hawaiian Islands, Canton, China, and the
Sahara Desert; it is but a few miles north of Cuba. North
Florida is south of Bermuda, the Madeira Islands, Algiers
and Cairo, Egypt.
.
F LORIDA is the First portion of the United States to be
settled by Europeans and possesses the oldest existing
city in the country; since its discovery by the Spaniards it has
been under ten flags; it was once a Republic; a pirate once
ruled as king; its capital is the only Confederate capital
east of the Mississippi never occupied by Federal troops,
but it also contains the only city south of the Mason & Dixon
line which remained under the Union flag throughout the
war.
ROBABLY the greatest of all Florida's resources is the
productivity of its agricultural lands. Agriculture has
always been, and always will be, the chief support of
civilization. The average rainfall in Florida exceeds fifty-
five inches and this heavy rainfall, distributed by a kind na-
ture over most of the year, is at the base of the great agri-
cultural possibilities of the State. Florida with several hun-
dred different varieties of crops, and ranking high in the
number of cattle on range, is primarily an agricultural State.
Fresh and salt water fish, oysters, stone crabs and sponges
may be considered the principal marine resources of the
State. High amongst the natural resources of the State are
phosphate deposits, Fuller's earth, kaolin, limestone,
cement rock, forests and naval stores.
LORIDA is the second largest State
east of the Mississippi, all of New Eng-
land, excepting a portion of Vermont,
would fit inside Florida; it is larger than either New
York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, or Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey and Delaware; the coast line is
double that of any other State; there are more than
thirty thousand lakes in Florida, including the second
largest body of fresh water in continental United
States. By railroad from the St. Mary's River on the
north to Key West on the south is 570 miles, while east
and west from Jacksonville to Pensacola is 370 miles.
B OTH the orange and sugar-
cane were introduced into Florida during the early days of
its history. Orange culture has increased to such an extent
that not only does Florida supply over one-third of the coun-
try's requirements, but Florida citrus fruits have received,
and justly so, a world wide reputation. Culture of sugar-
cane lagged and it is only since 1930 that real progress has
been made, although Governmental restrictions on the pro-
duction of our own necessities may again defer the right of
Florida to supply a substantial portion of our sugar require-
ments which are now supplied by alien peoples. a
TROPICAL disturbances
or "hurricanes" in Florida seem to get greater attention from
both the press and radio than gales in the north, tornadoes
in the midwest and other disturbances in the far west.
t.:
LORIDA considers the tourist one of its best
crops. It is for this reason particularly that the latch string
always hangs out, and that great efforts are made to cater
to the wants of strangers in its midst. Florida not only
desires the return of its visitors from year to year but also
wishes them to bring their friends. There is therefore a
ready welcome. Nor does the State expect her winter
visitor to support her throughout the year, for her other
resources can supply her needs in the off season. The day
of shutting up shop, when the visitor departs, has long
been gone. Florida has the longest growing season of
any State in the Union. Reaching farthest south, it offers
the greatest variety of production. Low costs with wide
distribution, satisfying the needs and desires of all the
people, have always in the past, and will likewise in the
future, assure the State its prominent position in the Union.
FOR every far-seeing pioneer who has
thus far carved his monument in, and his fortune from, the soil
and climate of Florida, there are a thousand equal or greater
opportunities still 6pen for men of vision, initiative and cour-
age. There are greater and better opportunities for proRit in
Florida than have yet been realized. The underlying stability
of Florida based upon its undeveloped resources is sound and
immensely greater than has been realized to date. Few realize
the immensity either of territory or opportunity in Florida and
most of these opportunities and possibilities might seem an
exaggeration to those who have not studied the situation.
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