COCOANUT-GROWING IN FLORIDA. 



A RECENT INDUSTRY OF GREAT PROMISE. 



ROM the time of leaving 

 Titusville I had been 

 on the qui vive to ob- 

 t a i n sight of Cocos 

 mccifera, the cocoanut- 

 palm. Not that I had 

 not seen the tree before, 

 for at various places I 

 had been assured that 

 it was directly within 



my line of vision. But I wanted to discover one for 

 myself, and by its fruit to know it. Without its 

 fruit it was to my unbotanical eye a mere palm, not 

 so very different from many of its congeners. With- 

 out its fruit it was merely the palm of the conserva. 

 tories, or the subtropical or semi-tropical affair of 

 trimly kept grounds. For that I was not searching, 

 but only for the long-dreamed-of tree of the tropics 

 which should bear aloft its pendent clusters of great 

 fruit. 



As our boat drifted its slow way down the long length 

 of the Indian river, I carefully swept either shore with 

 my glass. Palms there were of many sorts, interwoven 

 with pines, the typical growth of the north, alternating 

 with dense mangrove swamps, making a fitting back- 

 ground for low-growing palmettos, and giving more and 

 more the tone to the landscape as we journed south. 

 But not until we had drifted down for 150 miles between 

 these low banks did I find that which I sought. At 

 Jupiter Inlet, at the extreme southern end of this long 

 thread of tide-water, stands a noble, graceful tree bear- 

 ing high up beneath its feathery crown of foliage a great 

 burden of clustered fruit. The same sweep of the glass 

 brought within range both it and "Jupiter Lights," the 

 'ighthouse made known to us all so well by a famous 

 story-teller. 



A hundred miles further south are growing some trees 

 which are known to have been there for half a century ; 

 but for how much longer, or how they came to be 

 there, the historian saith not. Doubtless the seed wag 

 washed ashore from the south, and either thrown high 

 up on the beach by some great storm, or carried there 

 by a strolling native or by a wandering half-savage 

 settler. Certain it is that it found congenial soil, and 

 rooted and grew and thrived, that it might teach a lesson 

 to a future generation. 



Cocoanut-growing upon this coast has been marked by 

 well-defined epochs. The beginning of the first one was 

 when this seed, long ago, was washed upon this almost 

 uninhabited shore, and thus was providentially saved 

 from perishing. 



The second period began 15 years ago, when the bark 

 Providential (from what port I know not) went ashore 

 some 30 miles below this Jupiter Inlet, and made a total 

 wreck, not only of herself, and of owners' and con- 

 signees' hopes, but of a goodly cargo of cocoanuts as 

 well. Fifteen years is only a little stretch of time, and 

 the march of progress goes with swift strides. Fifteen 

 years ago the dwellers upon this coast were few ; they 

 were far apart, and further yet from even the outposts 

 of civilization. 



This cargo of cocoanuts was a gift of the sea none 

 too well appreciated. It could not be eaten ; it could not 

 be worn, nor converted into coin of the realm. Then, 

 remembering the old trees to the south which some of 

 them had either seen or heard of, and in default of any 

 other use to which to put this questionable treasure- 

 trove, the settlers began to plant the nuts. 



The beginning of the third epoch came seven years 

 later. The history of this I will give, as nearly as 

 possible, as I had it from the lips of the man best 

 qualified to speak, Ezra Osborne, doubtless the largest 

 cocoanut-planter in the world. It was told to me one 

 mid-winter afternoon as we sat beneath the friendly shade 

 of a cocoanut-grove, upon the shores of that idyllic spot 

 that men have named Lake Worth. It was winter, but 

 the flowers were blooming about us, and the dense, rank 

 vegetation of the tropics crept in tangles round our feet. 



" It is about ten years, " said Mr. Osborne, " since my 

 attention was first attracted towards Florida as a desir- 

 able place for investment. Finding that I could secure 

 a large tract of land along the Bay of Biscayne at a very 

 low figure, I purchased it without any definite idea of 

 its value or ultimate use, but rather on the principle that 

 any land in the state was desirable at that price. Sub- 

 sequently I was led to look into the possibilities of cocoa- 

 nut-culture, and gave orders for planting a couple of 

 thousand trees upon my purchase. The agent to whom 

 the order was given found himself unable to carry it out, 

 by reason of his inability to procure the seed-nuts. By 

 the time his report was made I had become sufficiently 

 interested in the project to determine on carrying it out 

 on a much larger plan than was at first contemplated. 



" The great difficulty in the matter was to procure the 

 seed, the peculiarity being that the nuts must be still 

 enveloped in their husk, which is usually removed before 

 they become an article of commerce. Importers who 

 were consulted were at first eager to take the contract 

 for furnishing the required amount, but after correspon- 

 dence with their foreign agents were all finally compelled 

 to abandon it. At last a Baltimore dealer was found, of 

 sufficient enterprise to send a vessel to Trinidad upon 

 this special errand, and to bring a cargo of somewhat 

 more than 100,000 nuts safely to this coast. 



