The following letter was published originally in Taggart’s Philadelphia Sunday Times, under the following caption: “Life in Florida. Interesting letter from Samuel C. Upham, formerly of Philadelphia, but now located in Florida, addressed to our lady editress. Hints to those who may wish to visit the Flowery Land.”
Sunnyside Cottage,
Braidentown, Fla., June 8th, 1880.
My Dear Mrs. Bladen: In the Sunday Times of the 30th ult., you say:
“Mr. Samuel C. Upham, whose popular songs and wonderful California experiences render him a Philadelphia celebrity, has a large plantation near Jacksonville.”
It is pleasing to know, when one is far away, that he is not entirely forgotten by his friends; but you are slightly mistaken when you say I own a large orange plantation near Jacksonville. I am located on the Manatee River, some eight miles above its entrance into Tampa Bay, on the Gulf coast of South Florida, in latitude 27½°, and below “frost line.” I visited Jacksonville and all the towns and landings on the St. Johns, Halifax and Matanzas Rivers, and also “did” the Suwanee pretty thoroughly before locating in Braidentown. I prefer this part of Florida to the Atlantic coast for the following reasons: Healthfulness of climate, purity of water and immunity from frost and insects. My health has improved wonderfully since my arrival in the Land of Flowers, and I am pretty thoroughly convinced that I have obtained a new lease of life. The sea breezes that fan my brow at morning, noon and night, act as a tonic on my enfeebled constitution, and I am daily gaining strength and muscle. I have to-day worked six hours in my banana grove, with the thermometer at 90° in the shade, without experiencing any inconvenience from the heat. The heat is so modified by the constant sea breeze that one can work in the sun at all hours of the day and at all seasons of the year. Sunstroke and hydrophobia are unknown here. This statement can be taken without salt. In midsummer the nights are invariably cool. Blankets at night are the rule, not the exception. This much about location and climate; now, a few words about that orange grove.
My ranch is new, and consequently rather crude. When I located here in November last, a large portion of it was a “howling wilderness.” Since that time, I have felled the trees, piled the logs, burned the brush, grubbed and fenced fifteen acres, on ten acres of which I am now setting out 500 two-years-old sweet seedling orange trees, which I hope to live long enough to see bear fruit. Some two months since, I set out 200 banana plants, and they are doing remarkably well; many of the stalks are six feet in height. They will bear fruit in about eighteen months. I also have a patch of sixty pine-apple plants which will bear fruit next year. I have a few coffee and tea plants, Japan plum and persimmon, pomegranate, almond and olive trees that are growing luxuriantly. I brought with me from Philadelphia, half a dozen cocoa-nuts, which I planted on the 1st of November last, and had given up all hope of ever seeing them sprout, when, to my great surprise, some two weeks since, two of them threw up sprouts. They are now one foot high, and are growing vigorously. The guava thrives admirably here. I have several trees, and expect soon to luxuriate on guava jelly of my own manufacture. I will send you a few sample boxes.
Have you ever eaten a Florida orange, fresh plucked, that ripened on the tree? If not, visit Florida, and enjoy the greatest luxury of your life. It is the fruit par excellence—fit food for the gods. I have, in the course of my somewhat eventful life, eaten oranges in the groves of the Mediterranean, South America, Mexico and the West Indies, but none can compare with the orange grown in this State. Our soil is peculiarly adapted to the growth and maturity of the perfect orange. No other soil can produce it. The West India and Louisiana seedling orange tree is wonderfully improved by being transplanted in Florida soil. South Florida will, ere long, be one vast orange grove, and will supply the world with her incomparable fruit. She will supply the Mediterranean ports with better oranges than can possibly be raised in that country. Won’t that be “carrying coals to Newcastle?” I may not live to see the above prediction verified, but there are persons living at this time who will.
If any of your numerous friends think it would be a good thing to have an orange grove, advise them to visit the Gulf coast of South Florida before locating elsewhere. Also tell them to drop in at Braidentown. They may go further and fare worse. The most direct route to this place is by rail to Cedar Key, the present terminus of railroad communication, thence by steamer down the coast. The mail steamers leave Cedar Key twice a week for this place and Tampa. Leave Cedar Key at 4 o’clock P. M. on Monday and Friday of each week, and arrive at Braidentown at 7 o’clock the following morning. Au revoir.
S. C. Upham.
The following communication was published in the Florida Agriculturist in January last, under the caption of the “Climate of the Gulf Coast of South Florida.”