GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 281 



MANUFACTURING 



The United States census has not published returns of manu- 

 facturing for single counties for several decades ; and although 

 the State agricultural department has taken censuses of manufac- 

 turing at several different periods, and published the returns by 

 counties, omissions and typographical errors make the reports of 

 doubtful value for statistical purposes.* Consequently it is not 

 feasible to treat the subject statistically at this time, but some ran- 

 dom observations can be given. 



Central Florida is too remote ivoni coal mines and waterfalls 

 for manufacturing to rank high among its industries, though at 

 some future time its vast stores of peat may be utilized as a source 

 of power. (Some notes on water-power were given in the chapter 

 on topography.) The most common kinds of m;anufacturing es- 

 tablishments are sawmills and turpentine stills, which put the raw 

 products of the pine forests through one or two of the first stages 

 in their preparation for use ; and these get their power from pine 

 wood, which is a by-product of the same industries and therefore 

 costs them very little. A few statistics of sawmills have been 

 given in the chapter on vegetation. 



Every city has various necessary establishments supplying local 

 needs, such as laundries, bakeries, ice factories, printing offices, 

 and plants supplying water, gas and electricity, and these are 

 classed as factories by the census, but unlike real factories they 

 bring in little or no wealth to the region because their products are 

 not shipped out to any appreciable extent, and it is hardly possi- 

 ble to expand such industries any faster than the population im- 

 mediately around them grows. (There are of course a few ex- 

 ceptions, such as the plant in DeLand where this report is 

 printed.) 



There are quite a number of crate factories, which have a 

 somewhat wider circle of patronage, and a few brick-yards. Cigar 

 boxes are made in Tampa to supply the factories there, and there 



*For example in the 1915 census no returns of manufacturing were re- 

 ceived from Osceola County, and none of sawmills and turpentine stills from 

 Polk County; and the published figures made it appear that the cigars made 

 in Hillsborough County were worth about six cents apiece and those in Orange 

 County only about half a cent apiece. 



