136 



FLOPilDA FEUITS. 



more trouble and expense in affording it winter protection, than 

 is required by any of the methods \^e have naoied. 



One of the pioneers of Sumter county, whose experience 

 with guavas dates back for many years, gives the following as 

 his repeated experience of the actual profits received from 

 making jelly of one's own fruit ; he has done it, is doing it still, 

 and has good reason to contine doing it : 



One bushel guavas (regular price) .S 2.00 



Thirty pounds sugar (12J cents per pound) 3.75 



The.-e seven dozen glasses of jelly, the product of one bushel 

 of guavas, sell on the spot, to the merchants, who ship them 

 Isorth, at S3.00 per dozen, ' This gives $21.00 receipts. Deduct 

 the expenses as given above, and for one bushel of fruit we have 

 the handsome profit of 810.25 ! 



Xow, "^hen we consider that by planting guavas twelve 

 feet apart, an acre will contain three hundred and two, and that 

 after the third year each bush will average a full bushel, 

 increasing as it grows older. If not allowed to suffer from frost 

 the enormous and certain profits of the business may be seen 

 at a glance. 



Let us say that there are three hundred plants on an acre, 

 each yielding but half a bushel (a very small crop), and that the 

 profit per bushel is but 810.00, even these reduced figures give 

 81,500 as the profit of one acre for one season, to the man 

 who manufactures his own jelly. 



And these are not fanciful figures, either ; but actual facts, 

 to the truth of which people are at last waking up. There are 

 more guavas being set out this year than ever before. 



Those who do not care to make their fruit into jelly, can 

 either dry it for shipping, as we have seen, or else sell it in 

 neighboring towns, where there is always a demand for it, at 

 82.00 a bushel, and even at the latter rate it is very easy to see 

 how profitable a fruit the guava is. 



Seven dozen jelly glasses, 



5.00 



Total 



810.75 



