Sponge Fishing in Florida.
The vessels that are used in the business are chiefly schooner-rigged and vary in size from five to twenty-five tons burden. They carry crews ranging from five in number to fifteen for the largest vessels, nine men to the boat being the average number. The odd man in each case is the cook, who remains aboard to provide for the inner wants of the crew (generally amazingly large) and sails the craft while the balance are off in the small boats called dingeys in search of sponge. Each vessel is provided with poles of various lengths, from fifteen to fifty feet, to be used according to the depth of water in which they are working, which have attached to them three pronged hooks shaped like the teeth of a garden rake, somewhat heavier, with which the sponge are detached from the objects to which they are adhered and drawn into the dingey.
Two men are necessary to operate a dingey, one, the “hooker,” using the pole and the sculler keeping the boat in motion, following the directions of the hooker, where he leans over the side looking through an ordinary wooden bucket with a glass sealed in its bottom for the sponge, which, when discovered, is secured with the hooks.
The fisherman are most all former inhabitants of the islands; many of them have lived in the Bahamas, and there are about equal numbers of white men and negroes.
They are designated “Conchs” by the people living upon the mainland, from their making use of that shell animal for edible purposes when living upon their native islands.
A trip is of eight to ten weeks’ duration, unless it is mutually agreed by the owner and the crew that it shall end sooner, and a “broken” trip is one which does not pay expenses incurred, and does not happen often, except during a period of disaster like that just passed through.
When the trip is finished the catches are carried to market where the purchaser bids upon them at a certain price per bunch or for the lot, having previously estimate from his thorough knowledge of the goods their value in pounds.
Before sending them to the various markets they are first trimmed neatly and cleaned of all rock and shell, and then packed in bales of convenient sizes in a compress which reduces them to small bulk and renders them easily handled.
Owing to the scarcity of the supply the demand is at present very great, and excellent prices are obtained.
The Newnan (Ga.) Cotton Mill (6300 spindles) will put on a night force to operate its mill, so that it can catch up with the orders with which it is now overrun.
Mr. L. C. Porter, proprietor of the Windsor hotel of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has decided to remove with his family to Wilmington, N. C. He has been in North Carolina since the 28th of December.
“I want to get away from the cold, long winters of the Northwest,” he said, “and I came here to prospect. I have been traveling North, East, South and West, and my observation is that you have the finest climate I have ever seen. If you hadn’t this advantage in climate and your fine opportunities for investment along with it, you wouldn’t catch me settling here.”
It is said that Mr. Porter has in hand a plan to establish a colony of Scandinavians in Eastern North Carolina. He expects to settle from fifty to 100 thrifty families somewhere near Wilmington. For twenty years he has been engaged in fostering colonies on the new lands of Wisconsin and Michigan.
A Young Men’s Business Association is to be organized at Knoxville, Tenn.
Savannah is getting up a commercial club.
Macon, Ga., expects to be visited about March 10 by a party of investors and home-seekers from Indiana, who have been induced by the Macon Bureau of Advertising & Information to go down on a prospecting trip.
The Commercial Club, of Anniston, Ala., is going to have an exhibit room in which to show the agricultural, mineral and industrial resources and products of Calhoun county.
Mr. Chappell Cory, secretary of the Birmingham Commercial Club, has taken great interest in the matter of immigration. Recently at a meeting of the State Agricultural Society, he delivered a very able address on the subject, which was exceedingly well received by the farmers before whom it was delivered. In the latter part of February, at his invitation, a number of the real estate men of Birmingham met to discuss the subject of immigration. Mr. H. D. Lane, commissioner of agriculture of the State, was present, and addressed the meeting. Following his speech there was a general discussion of the subject, after which the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That we cordially endorse the movement for immigration as outlined by Commissioner Lane, and pledge him our hearty co-operation, both as real estate men and as citizens of Birmingham and of Alabama.
At Atlanta, Ga., a $500,000 company has been formed to engage in establishing country banks wherever good openings are found.
A large party of prominent coal operators of Chicago and other Western cities have been examining Kentucky coal fields with a view to handling Kentucky coal on a large scale, and also of investing in coal properties.
A new water-power cotton mill will be built in South Carolina on Penny-Shoals, Tiger river, near Wellford, by a company recently incorporated as the Tuscapan Mills Co. Mr. C. E. Fleming, of Spartanburg, is at the head of the enterprise.
The public lands in Arkansas, government, State and railroad, aggregate more than 7,000,000 acres. There are over 4,000,000 acres of government lands subject to homestead entry. Any male citizen of the United States who is the head of a family, or over twenty-one years of age, is entitled to enter 160 acres of land by paying the following fees: For forty acres, $6; for eighty acres, $7; for 120 acres, $13; for 160 acres, $14. The State has also 1,200,000 acres which it will sell at $1.25 per acre, or any citizen over the age of twenty-one years, or the head of a family, can secure a donation of 160 acres by paying a fee of $10. In addition to this the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. has over 2,000,000 acres which it will sell on five years’ time at from $2 to $5 per acre, receiving notes in payment therefor, bearing 6 per cent. interest. During the last two years there have been donated to settlers 166,940 acres of land, and deeds made to 131,957 acres to settlers who had fulfilled the requirements of the law.
It is not generally known that nearly the whole of the extreme western part of Texas is fenced in and divided up into enormous pastures. There is one pasture, for instance, traversed by the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad, that it takes a fast express train four hours and a quarter to cross. Another, in Dickens, Crosby and Emma counties, belonging to the Espinella Cattle Co., contains over 1,500,000 acres. If this pasture were in the shape of a square it would be about fifty miles each way, requiring therefore, 200 miles of fencing.
The Empire Plaid Mill, at High Point, N. C., is crowded with orders. The plant has been running on double time for some months until very recently.
From the annual report of the Board of Trade of Eufaula, Ala., of which Mr. C. B. Goetchius is secretary, it is learned that Eufaula has had a very active business year in spite of the hard times. The residences and stores that have been built during the year aggregate in cost about $50,000. As an indication of the comparative business done in 1892 and 1893, it is stated that the cash receipts at the railroad office were $8500 greater in 1893 than in 1892. During the recent period of financial and business disasters and failures there was not a single failure in Eufaula, and not a business house closed with the exception of one case of temporary embarrassment, which was quickly arranged.
The Liberty Woolen Manufacturing Co., of Bedford City, Va., has secured another contract from the government to make goods for the army. This time the order calls for 7000 broad yards at a cost of over $8000.
The last annual message of the mayor of Augusta, Ga., which has been printed in pamphlet form, is a very comprehensive review of the city’s affairs for 1893.
Sixty newspaper men from North Dakota are visiting Texas.
The Eufaula Cotton Mill Co., at Eufaula, Ala., has just completed an addition to its plant at a cost of $50,000. At the same place a new cotton mill is being built by another company—the Chewalla Cotton Mill Co.
The managers of the Seaboard Air Line have become greatly interested in the matter of immigration. Mr. R. C. Hoffman, of Baltimore, the president of the line, and Major J. C. Winder, the general manager, at Wilmington, N. C., are considering plans for procuring the settlement of Northern farmers in their territory. The Seaboard Air Line traverses a country suited in the highest degree for farming and stock raising, and especially for growing early fruits and vegetables.
The citizens of Tuskaloosa have organized “The Commercial Association of Tuskaloosa county.” The officers and directors are: President, A. F. Prince; Vice-president, George W. Christian; Secretary, Walter Guild. Board of Directors: Festus Fitts, Victor Friedman, W. C. Jemison, J. C. Harrison, A. S. Vandegraaff, H. F. Hill, George A. Searcy, Charles R. Maxwell, T. N. Hays.
The Richmond & Danville Railroad has issued a very handsomely illustrated book, “Snow Balls and Orange Blossoms,” a copy of which will be sent on application.
Mr. George W. Truitt, of LaGrange, Ga., has published a pamphlet called “Talks to the Farmers of Dixie.” It is full of valuable advice and suggestions.
The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. has in hand contracts that will keep it busy for two years.
Several hundred laborers have been put to work on the Chesapeake Beach railway, which is to connect Washington, D. C., with a proposed resort on the Chesapeake bay in Southern Maryland. It seems remarkable that this superb body of water has been up to this time so little made use of by the cities of Washington and Baltimore. This new resort at Chesapeake Beach will be a boon to both cities. It will be within less than an hour’s ride of Washington, and will be readily and quickly accessible from Baltimore also.
The Chesapeake Beach railroad passes through a section of country admirably suited to truck gardening as well as general farming. Mr. Washington Danenhower, whose office is in the Loan & Trust building, Washington, has already had some negotiations looking to the locating of a colony of farmers from the Northwest along the line of the road.
The Sibley Manufacturing Co., of Augusta, Ga., has begun an extensive addition to its cotton mill. The output of the mill will be greatly increased.
It is astonishing to people who are unacquainted with the details of Florida business life to hear of the amount of business done in the little towns in the interior and along the coast. Indeed, it surprises some of those who live here to see the summing up of the annual business done by individual firms in those towns, and if one didn’t in some way get at some tangible reason for these figures one would be disposed to question their correctness. But when one drives out into the surrounding country and sees the many orange groves and the many broad acres planted in vegetables a key is found that unlocks the situation.
In Florida, instead of large areas of land in cultivation, there are the native growths only dotted here and there with openings, and planted to fruits and vegetables. It requires but little stock to cultivate them and but few hands, comparatively speaking, to do the work. The crop raised on one acre of Florida soil on an average is equal to that of fifteen to twenty acres in cotton regions, and every dollar is for export, the grower receiving the cash for his crop, and then he reinvests it for the necessaries of his household and farm. There is where the volume of business done by the Florida merchants comes in.—Jacksonville Times-Union.
The cultivation of the castor bean may be attempted in Texas on a larger scale than heretofore. The United States Consul at Breslau, Germany, Mr. Frederick Opp, has been making inquiries about the climate and soil of Texas for Max Strahl, who is thinking of purchasing land in Bexar county for the purpose of raising the plants mentioned. According to Mr. Strahl’s statement, the castor plant requires much less rain than cotton; can be harvested in a much shorter space of time; requires only one-third of the amount of labor, and yields a much greater profit to the producer.
In a letter to the San Antonio Express Mr. Opp says: “I have sent a sample of the beans to the Department of Agriculture at Washington. I trust that Mr. Strahl will soon positively decide to settle in Texas and inaugurate the enterprise. He is an expert in castor plant growing and raises large quantities in India.”
The Rock Island & Texas Town Co. owns a 300 acre tract of land near Boyd, Texas, which has been divided into ten acre tracts for small fruit and vegetable farms.
The citizens of Nacogdoches, Texas, have organized a society, the purpose of which will be to induce immigration to Nacogdoches county and advance the general interests of that section. Lists of lands for sale, with prices, &c., and general information about the locality will be furnished on application. The president of the society is George H. Davidson.
Mr. Guy M. Bryan, a banker of Bryan, Texas, who owns large areas of property in Brazoria county, near Velasco on the Gulf coast, is arranging to bore artesian wells to flood a considerable area of ancient lake beds, which he will convert into extensive rice farms.
A report now being prepared by Mr. F. H. Newell, of the United States Geological Survey, on the condition, amount, and location of the public land still in the hands of the government, shows that there are about 600,000,000 acres of government lands. The report states, however, that all the vacant land remaining to the government in the West is either mountain country or else land which, owing to scanty rainfall or other conditions, is fit only for grazing.
The National Builders’ Association of the United States will hold its next convention in Baltimore in October, 1895. Mr. Noble H. Greager, of Baltimore, is president of the association; Mr. Charles A. Rupp, of Buffalo, first vice-president; Mr. James Meath, of Detroit, Mich., second vice-president; Mr. Wm. H. Sayward, of Boston, secretary, and Mr. George Tapperk, of Chicago, treasurer.
The Rock Hill Cotton Factory Co., of Rock Hill, S. C., which has heretofore made yarns only, is now adding 192 looms to its plant.
Mr. George C. Power, industrial commissioner of the Illinois Central and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Companies, in an interview with a reporter of the New Orleans Picayune, said: “I have been down south of the Ohio river with two or three parties who are desirous of locating wood-working factories. Those parties have expressed themselves as being well pleased with the lumber found there and the facilities for handling it; also the welcome which had been given them by the Southern people. It is more than likely two of the parties will locate within the next week or ten days.
“I find that although the banks wherever I visited have plenty of money, yet they cannot loan it to advantage. At some places the loans to farmers are being curtailed, but in the majority of places the applications for loans are fewer than in several previous years. The hotels are crowded with traveling salesmen, all of whom appear to be doing good business, selling principally dry goods, clothing, hats, caps, shoes and articles of similar character, and very few provisions. Many places are purchasing a better class of dry goods than they had in twenty years back. The merchants anticipate a very good spring trade.
“To show how small farmers are doing, I will cite one case. In the Yazoo Delta a farmer has grown all the provisions—corn and seed—for his new crop, and has sufficient left over to purchase a reaper for his coming hay crop. He has contracted for the produce of five acres of potatoes, seven acres of onions, and he will be self-supporting from this date forward. He is only one of a great many, and it seems to me that with fewer applications for loans and less demand for money to carry cotton, capital must seek other sources of employment. A large portion of it will most probably be invested in sound manufacturing industries, which will make a market for raw materials that are now to a great extent valueless.”
Charlotte, N. C., has grown tired of its inert Chamber of Commerce and proposes to organize a more active and progressive Board of Trade.
The Chamber of Commerce, of Huntsville, Ala., is receiving many inquiries from Northern farmers, who want to know about farming conditions around Huntsville.
It is stated that there are not enough houses at Columbia, S. C., to accommodate the increasing population, and that an excellent opportunity is given to erect an office building.
The secretary of the Bureau of Information of Newport News, Va., is in constant receipt of letters asking for information about Newport News and the adjacent country.
The Denison Land & Investment Co., of Denison, Tex., has elected A. P. Childs, of Bennington, Vt., President; E. H. Hanna, of Denison, Vice-president, and A. H. Coffin, of Denison, Treasurer.
C. S. Durling, of New York, was the originator of the refrigerator business in Florida, being the first man to run iced cars for the transportation of fruits and vegetables to New York. Before he began to do so berries could only be shipped by express, and only then when the weather was cool and the berries sour. Now Florida berries are sent North as late as May 1.
A refrigerator company will begin business at Gainesville, Fla., this week, and for the extra charge of ten cents per package they insure the arrival of truck at destination in the same condition as when put aboard the cars here.
Some of the cities of Tennessee have become interested in the idea of having an exposition to celebrate the State’s centennial. At a meeting of the Nashville Commercial Club a resolution was adopted providing for a committee of twenty-five members, composed of seven from the Commercial Club, six from the Board of Trade and three each from the Southern Engineering Association, the Historical Society and the Art Association, to make arrangements for a convention to be held in the city in March to discuss plans for an exposition.
The Board of Trade of Nashville, Tenn., is one of the few such concerns that has life and activity and progressiveness. Major A. W. Wills, the recently elected secretary, is a man full of zeal and energy, and he will make the board of trade a power in the advancement of Nashville and the surrounding country.
The stockholders of the Luna Cotton Mills, Fort Mill, S. C., have voted to extend the plant and add considerable new machinery, including 100 looms.
Within the last twelve month taxable values in Texas have increased $30,000,000.