Home life in Florida

Front matter

"1

Florida

/BY

CHAPTER I.— What Florida Offers. Page

Comfort and Competence for the Honest and Industrious. Increase of Prosperity, and Population of the State. Good Investment for both Capital and Labor. Health for the In valid 9

CHAPTER IL— A Backward Glance.

Why Florida is called "A New Country." A Glimpse

of her History 24

CHAPTER X.— Home Surroundings

Grass Lawns. Vines and Elowers. Shade-trees and Arbors. Shade for Poultry-yards *lol

CHAPTER XL— "What Shall I Need?"

Warm Clothing and Carpets Desirable. Cool Weather. " The Dark Days of January, 1886." Whether to Bring or Buy in Florida the Household Furniture. Hints for Shipping Goods 170

CHAPTER XII.— "What Shall I Eat?"

Deprivations in New Neighborhoods. The Provision Closet. Conveniences and Food Supply Constantly Increasing 186

CHAPTER XIII.— Home Supplies

Fish, Flesh, and Fowl to be had for the Catching. The Gopher Tortoise , 196

CHAPTER XIV.— "Out oe the Depths."

A Boat the first Requisite. Methods of Fishing for Trout or Bass. Salt-water Fish, Clams, and Oysters. Methods of Catching Fresh-water Turtle; Curious Quality of their Flesh 209

COKTENTS. 7

CHAPTEK XY.*— The Dairy Question— Old Style. The Native Plorida Cow. Methods of Milking. How to Make a Cow-pen. Best Plan for best results in Fertilizing the Soil by Cow-penning. Treatment of the Florida Cow. 223

CHAPTER XVI.-— The Dairy Questiok— Coming Style. Native Stock to be Improved by Crossing with Thoroughbreds and Proper Treatment. Acclimated Thoroughbreds should be Bought of Florida Breeders T. . 246

CHAPTEK XVH*-Pasturage.

Bermuda, Johnson and Para Grass. Beggar's Weed or Indian Clover 261

CHAPTER XYIII.::_rLORiDA Poultry.

Nearly all Varieties do Well. How to Treat them Successfully 273

CHAPTER XIX. = — The Poultry-Yard.

Shade, Grass, and Pure Water Requisite. The Nursery. How to guard against Hawks. Movable Coops and Fences. 296

CHAPTER XX.«--PouLTRY Patients.

How to Treat the Few Diseases Florida Poultry are subject to g j2

CHAPTER XXI.'-— Firing the Woods.

Permitted by Law for the Benefit of Cattle; but will soon be a Thing of the Past. A Most Pernicious Custom, Injurious to Soil and Property. How to Fight Fire. 320

CHAPTER XXII.-All About Fences.

The Fence Law. Repeal Urgent. Injury done by allowing Stock to roam at Large, and compelling the Agriculturist to Fence against Them. How to Make Good and Cheap Fences. Wire Fences Made at Home 327

- For the major portions of these chapters we acknowledge our indebtedness to the courtesy of the Florida Dupatch, in whose columns they originally appeared.

8 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXIII.— Household Help.

Housekeeper's Trials. Florida Negro Servants. Amusing Experiences. Importance of the Problem of Domestic Help. How it may be solved 344

CHAPTER XXIV.— Trials and Tribulations.

Insect Foes, and How to Eight Them. Harmless Lizards and Frogs. The " Bugaboo " of Snakes 366

CHAPTER XXV.— Making The Best or It.

Compensations for Drawbacks. How to Make the New Home Happy , 401

CHAPTER XXVI.— Helpful Hints.

How to Paint Houses. Recipes for Cheap Paints. About Horses, "Wagons, and Harness. How to Renovate Carriages. Home-made Furniture, Rugs, and Refrigerators. To Preserve Food 408

Chapter I. What Florida Offers

A little bird has come tapping at our study door, bearing in its beak a message from the North, East, West, and Southwest, and from "beyond the seas," which reads thus :

"We have read of Florida's fruits, of her cotton, her cane, her climate ; we have heard glowing accounts of what has been and can be done through all the length and breadth of the noble 'Land of Flowers;' but nowhere have we read or heard of the thousand and one details of the every-day life that must be met and lived by the settler before he attains the grand sum total of independence. How- do he and his wife live and work and pass their time ? What do they wear ? what do they eat ? what does it cost ? what can they raise ? Tell us of these things, so that all the thousands of us who are coming to Florida seeking homes may know to what we are coming, and see some clear rays of light shining through the obscurity of vague generalities. Things known to you old settlers are unknown to us ; things familiar to you are enigmas to us. We know that your ways are not as our ways, but we do not know the details of the difference, nor how to prepare to meet them. We are thirsty for information of the little things that go to make up the daily life of the settler. Give us to drink of the fountain of knowledge, that we may be strong to meet the life we must face iu our future homes."

And so, having been taught that it is as impolite to ignore a message as to refuse to notice a verbal question, we ' ' take our pen in hand to let you know " of Florida Home Life — " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Florida's climate has been spoken of, and justly, by the most eminent scientists as one of the finest, and, aAvay from the miasms of the swamps, as one of the most healthful in the world, and we, who know her well, know that she has no need of exaggerated statements to plead her cause, and we propose to make none.

We who dwell and have dwelt for years within her borders know that our beautiful State has no need of overdrawn, rose-colored pictures.

It is better to understate rather than overstate the truth; it is better to climb up than fall down. Human nature is apt to fly to extremes, to expect too much, and then, not finding it, to shut the eye to the good that really nestles amidst the evil. And so it has fared with hundreds who have gazed on highly-colored pictures of Florida life, pictures tinted with rainbow hues, not a shadow or a flaw any where ; and, so gazing, have hastened there wdth pockets empty, yet full of anticipations of a quick and easy fortune to be obtained without time, or Avork, or patience, or deprivation, and then finding that Florida is only an earthly country after all, not a paradise, and that orange trees are so unreasonable and willful as to decline to grow up, increase, bear, gather, and ship their fruit of their own volition while their owner sleeps, they turn their backs upon the prospective golden fruit and draw a black brush over the rainbow-hued picture that had drawn them Florida-ward.

We hardly know what our own ideas of Florida life were until the realities were before us ; for, in fact (like many another, doubtless), we hardly had time to think about it at all.

" Jack and gill went up the hill To get a pail of water ; Jack fell down and broke his crown, And gill came tumbling after,"

and never stopped until they landed in the midst of a young orange grove, which some day will surely carry Jack and gill up hill again in a gold and green chariot, if only they are patient and energetic.

But there were some of us, we remember, who thought the trees had only to be stuck in the ground anyhow and then let severely alone for two or three years, when they would be found full of glorious fruit. Visions of special steamers to be chartered, of whole trains of cars loaded with the produce, floated before the glowing imagination ; and as for vegetables, they were to be had for the scattering of the seed, all the year round, if, indeed, they did not spring up and grow of their own accord.

It is curious to find, in collecting the preconceptions of "Florida fever" patients, how wildly just such ideas as these obtain credence. Very rarely, indeed, do we find a settler who has not formed impossible expectations, and is therefore "gwine to be disappinted," and in the rebound to see his future home in darker hues than it deserves. And all this comes of the unwise laudations of the enthusiastic friends who have done more actual harm to our beautiful State than all her foes collectively.

To clear away the mists and throw in the shadows that all earthly paintings must accept as part and parcel of themselves, and to tell the honest truth, and in such shape as to do the most practical good, is the earnest object of this present work.

Throughout the length and breadth of these United States, north, south, east, and west, and scarcely less in Great Britain also, there are at this moment thousands of hearts turning wistfully toward Florida as a haven of refuge and of hope from financial storms or from untimely death and disease. These inquirers are eager to know the real, substantial advantages she holds out to those who elect to cast their lot with hers, and the Floridian who sets forth these advantages side by side with the ever-attendant disadvantages, giving publicity to facts and not to "vain imaginings," will do his State more real service than he who willfully misleads by false statements impossible to be credited by any reasonable thinking being.

We hold that our beautiful State has no need of exaggeration, no need of that which is bright to be painted brighter. She only wants the truth to be known to mark her out as thrice blessed among her sister States. She has her drawbacks and deprivations, of course, though these are fewer than those of any other new country that we know of. Take notice that w^e use the word "new," for there are those who come to Florida ignoring the fact of its very recent opening up to settlers, and then grumble because things are not conducted in the old well-worn grooves they have been accustomed to in their old homes, whose rescue from the wilderness dates back for many years, even to the hundreds. There are plenty of such unreasonable, unreasoning, impractical people in the world, and occasionally they edify and amuse their wiser brethren by holding forth on the subject of imaginary grievances. Florida has seen a goodly number of them, and some of them not being known outside her borders in their true character have done her considerable injury. Many a man has come to our beautiful State, lured by glowing descriptions and rose-colored pictures of impossible perfections, with his expectations wrought to the highest pitch, and finding no paradise of ease and plenty awaiting his picking up without working or waiting, has turned his back upon her and gone back whence he came, to revile her as a fraud, a sham, a " trap to catch sinners."

Surely it is better for Florida that her settlers should come to her with moderate, reasonable expectations, and find their ideas lower than the reality ; far better this way than the opposite of expecting too much, and meeting bitter disappointment, and such a revulsion of feeling that the good that really lies before them is swallowed up in the gloom. Florida desires nothing but tlie truth to be told of her wealth and virtues — the plain, sober truth, in facts and figures, of deeds done and work accomplished, of what has been and is, not of the theoretical ''might be," this should be enough to satisfy an energetic, reasonable man ; and she wants none other. She is beautiful, but is not a paradise ; her climate, both summer and winter, is delightful, but it is not perfection; the summer days and nights are cooled by such breezes as are seldom known at the North. The heat is therefore less oppressive than the same season in any other State, in the North or South, but the warm weather continues longer. The winter has no snow, but sometimes there is ice, a thin skim that forms during the night and usually vanishes in the morning, but stays long enough to nip tender vegetables; so that the truck gardener must hasten to plant again in order not to lose the cream of the early Northern markets. And sometimes there is a drought that shrivels up the vegetables and keeps back the earliest shipments.

So you see there do exist drawbacks and discouragements, but they are not always nor all the time, and the man of pluck and energy who has made up his mind to act on that grand old adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," is certain to triumph in the end.

We heard the other day of a man (and this is only one instance out of hundreds) who came to Florida a few years ago with six hundred dollars' capital, borrowed money, every dollar of it. In five years he had repaid the money, including a heavy interest, and had three times as much in the bank, besides being the owner of forty acres of land, a young orange grove and peach orchard, two horses, half a dozen cows, and a comfortable house. He wisely located on a line of railroad to secure quick transportation, instead of settling in some place where his products could not find a market, and then he rolled up his sleeves and went to work like a man, to raise vegetables. He was new to the business, had been a hard-worked book-keeper, struggling vainly to support his family even in the most frugal manner. He knew nothing of farm life, but he studied, used his eyes and his brains as well as his hands, questioned his neighbors, did not disdain to take advice from men less educated but better informed in agriculture than himself, and so he succeeded, as every man will who follows his example — one of true worth and manliness. His cucumbers brought him from four to six dollars a crate, his tomatoes from two to six dollars, and peas, beans, beets, potatoes, and cabbages in like proportion ; and he blessed the day that he resolved to turn his back on the office desk and seek his fortune in fair Florida's outstretched hand.

It was not all plain sailing, be it understood. He worked faithfully and intelligently in spite of discouragements. Sometimes frost killed his young plants; sometimes dry weather did it. Insects helped them, dishonest commission men robbed him, but he kept steadily on, planting a new crop as fast as the old one was killed or gathered. Neither he nor the ground were allowed to remain idle.

To-day he is in possession of as pretty a home as one need wish to see. His wife and children are well and happy, and his life is full of contentment. " What a contrast," he exclaims, " to what it was eight years ago !" And all because he had the nerve to drag himself out of the old worn-out groove and the pluck to hammer out a new one.

This is no fancy picture, but one that every energetic man may make a reality for himself if he will but seize and hold Florida's royal bounty. And this man, take notice, Avas a gentleman, educated and trained as a book-keeper — one of a vast army who struggle on from day to day, overworked, underpaid, or not paid at all.

Take up any one of the newspapers of our great cities, and what do we see ? The same old story that has been told over and over again for years past. ''A merchant advertised for a clerk at ten dollars a week, and eight hundred applied for the position." "There are now no less than seven thousand book-keepers out of employment in this one city alone!" Is not that a pitiful showing? and in "one city alone." Think of it then all over the country ! Now why is it that so many young men prefer the precarious life of a salaried clerk, book-keeper, or salesman, shut in-doors all day and every day, from morning till night, earning barely enough to keep up appearances before the world, layiug by nothing to meet the rainy season, sure to come — if "out of employment," " on the sick list," " too old to work"— to the free, manly life of the farmer or fruit-grower, breathing God's pure air, uncontaminated by the dust and smoke of cities, living a life of comfort and freedom from care, even if one of honest daily toil, and storing up for the future a sufficient independence for himself and his family ? Why is it? Is it because in these days of ultra civilization and refinement manual labor lias come to be looked upon as unworthy of a "gentleman"?

Fie upon it ! If this is the reason of the surplusage of clerks and book-keepers, and the scarcity of young farmers and horticulturists and artisans, why then let us hasten back to the good old times of barbarism, and be happy and prosperous because we are not educated above a good, honest, hard day's work !

''Do ye not perceive," saith the Great Ruler of us all, "that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it can not defile him?" But "that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man." And so it is not the work that a man does that lowers him, but his manner of doing it. A sturdy, intelligent tiller of the soil, free to come and go, to breathe the pure air and join in the joyous hymns of the birds, doing his work cheerfully, energetically, and in the best manner, is surely the full equal of the salaried book-keeper, sitting at his desk, at the call of another, and liable to be thrown out on the world penniless after years of steady application to work that is certainly less elevating, free, and manly than that of the farmer or fruit-grower.

Florida holds forth her hand in hearty welcome, not only to the capitalist and manufacturer, whose gold is a magnet to draw forth yet more of the precious metal from amidst her hidden treasures and mysteries, and to utilize those resources of which we already know. Not only these does Florida welcome, but also, with just as much earnestness, the poor, honest man, be he ci-devant clerk, book-keeper, mechanic, artisan, or farmer, who comes to her seeking a comfortable home, and is neither ashamed nor too lazy to work for it. She wants good men and true — men of intelligence, of mind, and of muscle, with willing hands to convert her vast forests into rich fields and fruitful groves, and to fill their own treasure chest with the well-earned reward of honest toil judiciously expended. She has ample room for the skilled workman, the industrious mechanic, the day laborer, the farm hand, the truck farmer, the fruit-grower, the merchant, the blacksmith, and all the ' ' many men of many trades " who go to make up our busy, hard-working world. It is a noble, bounteous gift that she holds out to such as these, who flee to her from the crowded, icy North. It can all be summed up in one word — a veritable multiim in 'parvo.

Comfort! a glorious boon, is it not? — a comfortable climate, a comfortable home, a comfortable competence, a comfortable life for all their days to come, and a comfortable fortune for their children after them. It is all here waiting for the self-chosen ones, who elect to take advantage of the gift so freely offered to those who have manhood enough to grasp it and make the best use of it. But mark well that proviso, *' to grasp it and make the best use of it." For there are some who take and hold it in a feeble, half-hearted sort of way, and do not, by any means, make as good use of it as they might, and others who are so blind that they may gaze straight into bonnie Florida's outstretched palm and see nothing there but the sand that has got into their eyes and afiected their vision with a curious obliquity and color-blindness that changes all the fair landscape to one deep shade of blue.

Aye ! it is a most generous offer — comfort — a boon for which weary thousands upon thousands are seeking all their lives long and never find it, not for an hour or a day — a most noble gift indeed, but not made to sloths nor sluggards, nor to men who expect to reap where they have not sowed, to gather without planting, to thrust an orange tree into the ground one day and see the golden fruit drop into their pockets the next; nor to men who possess neither patience nor energy, neither perseverance nor "backbone," who prefer sharp practice to honesty, falsehood to truth. For such men as these Florida has no gifts to offer ; she does not want them, has no room for them, and gives them small encouragement to encumber her fair fields and forests.

Not only in our own dear country, but in England, Scotland, Ireland, Nor\tay, Sweden, Germany, there are thousands upon thousands of men and women, many of them too in the higher walks of life, struggling day by day to meet the daily, never-ending problem of how to live and how to clothe and educate their children. Ah ! did they but know of the peaceful, comfortable home that fair Florida holds forth for their acceptance !

When the cold, chilling breath of the Ice King sweeps over the land of the North, and suffering — suffering from cold, from starvation, from sickness — presses its heavy hand upon the downcast, " out of work," poverty-stricken toilers of the earth, we of sunny Florida read the sad story w4th aching hearts ; we look out upon our own bright surroundings and clear, warm sky, upon trees loaded with golden fruit, ground green with growing crops, chickens and ducks merrily chasing insects ; birds, rabbits, fish, turtle, and, on the coast, oysters and clams to be had for the catching; upon our own lightly clad forms, our small wood fires, some days not even called into requisition ; upon cord after cord of heat-giving, life-giving wood lying rotting on the ground ; upon master builders, carpenters, artisans of all kinds crying out, *' We can not work faster because we can not get workmen enough." We of bonuie Florida look out upon all these things, and the contrast in the lives of those wretched, suffering masses of the North, as it is, with what it might be if they would but accept the comforts that Florida freely offers them, fills our hearts with a yearning compassion aud desire to point out the open road that lies before them, did they but see it. And we are thankful, intensely thankful to know that the number of those who do see it is daily increasing — increasing, too, just as we would have it, in exact proportion as the veil of mystery is lifted from Florida's beautiful, genial form, and she stands revealed, her true self, the refuge, the benefactor of the struggling multitude.

The weary, anxious father and mother, whose hard, unremitting toil scarce suffices for the present needs of their little ones, aud who, so long as they creep on in the same old groove, are able to lay by not one dollar for the future or for the ''rainy day," so certain to come to all sooner or later, need but to transplant their household treasures to a genial Florida home to find in the present, comfort, and in the future competence, if nothiug more; and this, too, with less toil and hardship, less anxiety from day to day than they endured in the old life behind them. And many are awakening to this truth. Here, there, every where, we see colonies forming, neighbors joining hands and fleeing in a body from the icy winters of their old homes to seek an easier, more prosperous life in sunny Florida, making in themselves a community bound together by mutual associations in the past, giving to each other hope, support, encouragement in the present and future.

To the honest man willing to work, with a wife or children willing to lend a helping hand, there can be no such word in Florida as "fail." Even the despairing widow with little children dependent upon her, if she is able to work and can but get together enough money to carry her to one of the growing Florida towns, secure an acre or half acre of land (there are some who donate several acres to actual settlers), and erect a little frame house thereon, will find plenty of work to do, and reduced expenses for clothing and fuel; profit, too, in raising a few chickens and vegetables ; and meantime, for the future, may have growing on her little property a few well-cared-for orange and other fruit trees. For mark well this fact: a few trees properly tended will pay better and quicker than five times the number only half nourished and cultivated. One acre of land set with choice orange trees, say fifty of them, with peach, fig, and pear trees in the diamonds and corners, and vegetables raised between them, will in a few years go far toward supplying the wants of any reasonable family. And there are very few who could not acquire this much of landed property in bonnie Florida.

Florida offers opportunities for the energetic and industrious in every class of life, from the great capitalist down to the common day laborer. In all her towns workmen of every kind are in request at excellent wages, with less expense for clothing and fuel and house rent to be met than at the North. In every one of the numerous towns springing up all over the State, wherever and whenever the fastspreading net work of transportation lines- reaches out its life-giving arms — in every one of these numerous towns there are openings ready and waiting for all who choose to grasp them. For the man or woman who would embark in mercantile pursuits, with only a small capital to start with ; for the merchant, the dressmaker, the tinsmith, the milliner, the baker, the washer and ironer, the blacksmith, the carpenter — for each and all, in fact, Florida has a welcome and a home.

The day has gone by when there was employment in Florida only for builders and those connected with horticultural pursuits. "Many men of many minds" can now find plenty of opportunities to ply their several callings with profit. Merchants, manufacturers, capitalists are coming in day by day, and as to the future resources and possibilities of our infant State no one now living dares fix their limit, for the simple reason (by way of illustration) that no one dare say that Edison, the great electrician, can proceed no further than his last wonderful invention, that of telegraphing to and from a railroad tram gomg at full speed. Year by year, month by month, as the tide of immigration and travel flows across the border m a steadily augmenting stream, some new resource some new indication of Florida's future greatness is discovered ii.ven her most despised productions develop into iresh resources of wealth and channels of industry. Witness, in passing, the much condemned scrub or saw palmetto, found here, there, every where. Its fiber proves to be very valuable for manufacturing brushes and brooms and various other things, while its sturdy roots are found to be richer in tannin than the much-vaunted oak, and hence invaluable in tanning leather. Ground fine or burned, it is also a valuable fertilizer. The long gray moss which drapes the, hammock trees is coming into extensive use for mattresses and upholstery; and so we might go on swelling our list indefinitely. Tobacco factories are already in operation at several points, ice factories are numerous, the manufacture of textile fibers has commenced, fruit and vegetable canneries are springing into being, cotton mills coming to the fore, cattle ranches are close at hand.

^ But it is not the purpose of this present work to enter m detail into the various methods that Florida ofl^ers of winning home and competence to- the industrious and mtelhgent toilers of the world. Enough that we have indicated the roads that lie open to the -Home Life in Florida" and its possibilities. As to the means that shall support that home, it is for the settler to choose according to his means or inclination. Our sole object is to show what the Florida home may be made, what the settler must expect to meet, and how to make the best of his or her surroundings. We want the every-day realities of the new home to be known, so far as it is possible for our humble pen to reveal them, and in the telling of it all it shall be our earnest endeavor to adhere strictly to facts and to point out all sides of Florida life, good, bad, and indifferent. Happily we can truthfully say that the former largely predominates. Those who come to Florida "to stay," seek health, wealth, and a happy home, and these they will find if they are sought for in a reasonable, sensible spirit. We trust that when our readers lay down the pages of this book they will have gained a correct idea of Florida home life. Very many still hold to the same utterly unjust and erroneous opinion of Florida's true inwardness that was once uttered concerning her by that most eccentric statesman and senator, John Randolj)h, of Roanoke. It was when the question of the purchase of Florida from Spain was being considered by the United States Senate, and Randolph was bitterly opposed to it. ' ' What is Florida ?" he exclaimed. "A land of swamps, everglades, filled with frogs, tadpoles, snakes, terrapins, alligators, mosquitoes, gallinippers, and ague and fever ! AVhy, sir, a man would not emigrate to that county, even from purgatory ! What, then, do we want Avith Florida?" And all the John Randolphs are not dead yet, but they are dying rapidly. Florida kills them all ofi*, one after the other, as fast as they look upon her fair, honest face. One glance does it ; but the trouble is that so many do not take that one glance, and hence, if they pay any attention to the subject at all, are liable to be deceived, whether they believe all or believe nothing. Those who know Florida as she is, are those who love her best, and are most willing to tell the truth about her, without fear or favor.