Groves and localities and price, vary so much from season to season according to circumstance, that it is impossible to give any fixed valuation for which a bearing grove can be purchased per acre. The hard necessities of their owners sometimes compel their sale at a bitter sacrifice, and then the purchaser gets the benefit of all the years of toil and patience that have been expended upon it. "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good."
Again, the price of a grove, whether bearing or not, is governed, like all other business operations, by the law of supply and demand. The pleasanter the location, the nearer to transportation and social facilities, the more valuable the grove and the higher the price.
There are however, some general rules that will serve as guides in valuation, though, as we have seen, they are subject to many modifications. While the prices asked, as a general thing, for a bearing grove usually seem high to the purchaser who is a novice in orange culture and can not realize the full and vonstantly increasing value of the property he seeks to possess, yet the latter may safely buy on a basis of $100 to the tree, if the tree is in full bearing. Ten thousand dollars is not a high price for one hundred full-bearing trees, and if the location is healthy and near to transportation. Such a grove is actually worth much more than this in actual cash returns and home advantages.
There is not only a rapid increase in value from the age and increasing yield of the trees, but the land itself becomes more valuable year by year from the mere influx of settlers, even independent of the crops that may be raised on it. Now, this valuation of a tree at $100 may seem to the uninitiated in orange values as fictitious value. But here are the figures in the case.
"A tree in full bearing is one that bears not less than one thousand oranges. One thousand oranges at one cent each (they usually bring more than this) represents an income of ten dollars. This ten dollars represents a principal, which at Flortea's legal of eight per cent. is $125." Is, then, the valuation at $100 an extravagant one? Not only this, but as the tree increases in age it also increases in bearing capacity, even up to nine, ten and fifteen thousand oranges. So you see that an orange grove is a splendid investment, whether for the rich or poor.
It would be well for intending purchasers to consider the above statements when they feel inclined to cry out against the "high prices asked for groves," and also to remember the years of toil and care and perseverance that have been spent in making the grove during the long, weary march from seed to orange again. In buying an orange grove one buys an increasing annuity. Don't forget that.
As to the value of a "young grove, budded trees, well started," it is not possible to give an estimate, as it all depends on locality, demand, the needs of the seller, and similar circumstances.
As to September being too early to come to Florida, we can only say that, in our observation and experience, one month of the year is as safe as another.
Our own family settled here in June, and while we had cases of fever regularly every spring and fall in our Northern home, we have not had a single case in our thirteen years of residence in Florida. Facts speak volumes. — Florida Times-Union
Referring to what Helen Harcourt says of "fictitious values," we are constrained to add an item or two from our own knowledge of facts, indisputable evidence of which we have at command.
The "home place" of our Principal, at De Land, Fla., is an orange grove, fifteen years old. The fruit of this grove has the past four years successively been in demand, on the tree, at $1.50, $1.30, $1.70 and $1.60 per box. The crop averaging from year to year from two, three and four hundred boxes per acre, up to the last season, in which it averaged five hundred and fifty boxes per acre, which commanded an offer of $0.60 per box, on the tree, which would give a net return of $880 per acre. With sixty-five trees to the acre, this gives an average of a net return of over $13.50 per tree, or over thirteen per cent. on an investment of $100 per tree. With such facts, why should we call such a valuation, of $100 per tree, "fictitious"? Keep in mind that this grove is yet far from being in "full bearing." When these trees shall have attained their majority—in six years more—what may we not expect from them!
Again—we have before us a letter bearing date of July 4, 1891, from an intelligent grove manager of many years' experience in Florida, to whom our Principal had written for an estimate of the value of certain grove property. As the gentleman was entirely disinterested, it is reasonable to suppose his answer was unbiased. We quote from his letter. "This is the hardest question I ever tried to answer, and I would, if I dare, say 'not prepared'.—You know so many things enter into this question of values that I feel that after all it is only guess work. Really, the only basis of value is the return on investment; for instance, you have eight hundred trees on your No. 10 grove. Two boxes to the tree, @ $1.50 per box, gives ten per cent. on $24,000, but I dare not put that figure. But suppose I put it at $10,000, giving $1,000 interest, $600 for care and fertilizing, thus taking $1,600 off the $2,400-I leave $100 for emergencies or a sinking fund!—Please ask me an easier question. My head is not able to solve it any better —I have not studied it long enough yet."
Speaking of Florida, the Savannah News says:
A State that can produce annually $30,000 worth of honey. $40,000 worth of strawberries, $40,000 worth of hogs, $30,000 worth of sheep, $350,000 worth of beef, $750,000 worth of sponges, $350,000 worth of fish and oysters, $3,500,000 worth of oranges, lemons, limes and pine apples, $65,000 worth of sugar and molasses, $200,000 worth of rice, $500,000 worth of cedar, $4,000,000 worth of cotton, and thousands of dollars worth of other things, can very well afford to have its praise sounded.
