Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/101

Rh the state, the pecan crop soon may compete closely with the citrus crop of the southern part of the state. The open winters and light soil of Florida make many of its counties well adapted to the pro- duction of early vegetables for the northern markets. The industry is developing rapidly and the Florida producer can put vegetables on the northern markets earlier than any of his competitors. The chief obstacle in the way of further development of this industry is costly rates and inadequate railway freight service. The latest available figures on truck production, for the season of 1917-8, the trucking season being the winter, spring and early summer months, are given by the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture as follows:

Crops Ac. Crates Value

Onions. . . . 1,155 94,4*9 $ 175.539

Lettuce .... 2,683 747.346 518,874

Celery .... 1,661 854,298 798,161

Peppers .... 8,039 845,213 1,363,264

Irish potatoes. . . 38,596 4,552,465 4,403,361

Cabbage .... 10,253 1,032,379 1,358,633

Tomatoes .... 21,186 2,852,426 6,287,557

Squashes .... 596 82,543 124,716

Egg-plant. . . 1,616 358,737 596,336

Cucumbers. . . 2,497 35,5l6 497,615

Watermelons (cars). . 7,558 2,773 494> 6 36

Beets .... 380 73,571 105,391

String Beans. . . 8,006 1,360,136 1,933,578

In Florida much attention is paid to stock-raising. During the

decade 191020 there has been a consistent grading up of both beef

and dairy herds. Especially is this true of dairy herds, the average

.value of milch cows being more than five times as much in 1921 as

in 1910. The live stock in Jan. 1920 was: horses, 60,000 valued at

$8,400,000; mules, 40,000 valued at $7,840,000; milch cows, 156,000

valued at $11,232,000; cattle other than milch cows, 945,000 valued

at $25,798,000; sheep 95,000 valued at $494,000; swine, 1,588,000

valued at $20,644,000; a total for all stock of 2,884,000 head with a

total valuation of $74,408,000.

In 1916 the total value of minerals produced in the state was $5,859,821, the more important of which were phosphates, lime, limestone, brick, tile, and fuller's earth, of which latter Florida produced in that year more than three-fourths of the entire output of the United States. Phosphate production according to the last available figures in the Ninth Annual Report of the Florida Geologi- cal Survey was, in long tons: Pebble 1913 1916

Exported 887,398 172,427

ForuseinU.S 1,168,084 1,296,331

Total 2,055,482 1,468,758

Hard Rock

Exported 476,898 28,045

For use in U.S 12,896 19,042

Total 489,794 47,087

Grand Total .... 2,545,276 1,515,845 The total mineral production for 1919 was put by the State Geologi- cal Survey at a valuation of $10,603,620.

In 1916 the output of lumber was 1,425,000,000 ft., in 1918 950,000,000 ft. In 1918 Florida stood second in the production of cypress with a total of 85,376,000 ft., and sixth in production of yellow pine with a total of 765,912,000 ft. The high prices of lumber dur- ing most of the decade 1910-20 made this industry highly profit- able. Naval stores are produced from the pine forests, where the sap of the trees is collected and distilled, yielding turpentine and rosin. In 1905 Florida's naval stores were valued at $9,901,905. In 1917 there was a production of 8,824,295 gal. of turpentine valued at $13,018,447, and of 414,226 bar. of rosin valued at $3^260,107, or a total valuation for naval stores of $16,278,554. The manufacture of cigars and, to a much smaller extent, cigarettes is carried on chiefly in Tampa and Key West. In 1905 the gross value of production was $16,764,276. In 1917 Florida produced 469,301,042 cigars valued at $30,127,941 and 7,800,000 cigarettes valued at $154,000. A rapidly growing Florida manufacture is the production of com- mercial fertilizers, large amounts of phosphate mined within the state being used for this purpose.

History. The outbreak of the World War in 1914 interrupted two of Florida's more important exports .to Europe, naval stores and phosphates, thus creating a temporary business depression. In the naval stores industry the recovery was comparatively rapid, owing to the high prices of and increased domestic demand for the products during the period of the war, with the exception of its early months. The phosphate industry was more seriously affected, as Germany had been a large purchaser of Florida phosphates. Many of the Florida phosphate mines closed down, to resume operation only after the signing of the Armistice.

The political history of the state during the decade 1910-20 was uneventful. The question of prohibition played a large part in state politics until the ratification of the Eighteenth (Pro- hibition) Amendment to the Federal Constitution by the Florida

Legislature Dec. 14 1918. Since 1876 Florida has been uniformly democratic and, except in 1916, when a contested primary elec- tion in the democratic party resulted in the nomination of Sidney J. Catts as a prohibitionist and in his election as governor, all of the state's executives have been democrats. The governors after 1910 were: Albert W. Gilchrist, 1909-13; Park Trammell, 1913-7; Sidney J. Catts, 1917-21; and Gary A. Hardee from 1921.

A proposed constitutional amendment to effect reapportionment was passed by the Legislature in 1921, to become operative if voted on favourably in Nov. 1922. This measure would give more adequate representation to parts of Florida that have increased greatly in population. Several new counties have been created since 1910. From territory taken from De Soto co. the four new counties of Glades, Hardee, Highlands, and Charlotte have been formed; Lafayette co. has been divided, the southern part to be known as Dixie; Hillsborough's western part has become Pinellas co.; Flagler co. has been formed from the northern territory of Vol- usia and the southern part of St. John's; parts of Palm Beach and Dade have been joined to create Broward; the western part of Wal- ton and eastern part of Santa Rosa have been combined under the name of Okaloosa; part of Bradford has been made into Union; part of Manatee into Sarasota; parts of Washington and Walton have become Bay ; parts of Osceola, St. Lucie and Palm Beach are now known as Okeechobee ; and from the northern part of Orange Sem- inole has been created.

Florida furnished 42,301 soldiers, sailors and marines for the World War and the casualties among them were 1,171, including 467 dead. The state's subscriptions to the Liberty and Victory loans were: First Liberty Loan, $5,271,000; Second $8,611,000; Third $18,- 053,900; Fourth $27,538,100; Victory Loan, $17,918,100 the total for the five being $77,392,100. (J. M. L.)

FLYING CORPS. Aviation, as a military service, took new organized forms during the World War, and its development in this respect is dealt with in the following pages; the art of flying itself is treated under AERONAUTICS. At the present time, the general name of " Air Force " has come into official use to cover the different forms of organized military and naval avia- tion, but earlier in the World War the usual term was " Flying Corps." The development of the British air forces will be treated here first.

I. MILITARY AVIATION. The first official appearance of any. form of aircraft as part of the British army (for the navy, see later) was in 1878, when a Royal Engineers balloon equip- ment store was established at Woolwich Arsenal. In the fol- lowing years, besides practice in manoeuvres (both field and siege), experimental work was carried on at Woolwich, and later at Chatham, in the direction of getting a better gas, a more suitable fabric for the envelope, and more adequate means of filling the balloons than existed at the time. The question of transport for balloons was also carefully gone into. As a result of this decision a small factory, depot and school of instruc- tion were started at Chatham in 1883. In 1884 it was decided to include a balloon detachment among the R.E. units mob- ilized for service in Bechuanaland and in the following year a similar detachment was sent on service in the Soudan. In 1890 the balloon section was recognized as an individual unit of the R.E.; the factory and the school were moved to Alder- shot, the depot remaining at Chatham. At this time its strength was 33 all ranks.

Up to the beginning of the S. African War of 1899-1902 the organization of the balloon section remained the same. On the outbreak of that war it was decided to send balloons to S. Africa, and three sections in all went out.

In 1902 the first British airship, " Nulli Secundus," was commenced at the balloon factory, which also continued research into man-lifting kites, photography, signalling between ground and balloons, petrol motors, elongated balloons and mechanical hauling apparatus. In 1905 the balloon factory was moved to S. Farnborough, and experiments were carried out at Gibraltar with a view to seeing to what extent balloons could be utilized in spotting submarines and mines.

The growing importance of aeronautics was signalized in Oct. 1908 by the appointment of an appropriate standing sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence. This committee reported in Jan. 1909 in favour of a small expenditure being authorized for building a rigid airship for the navy, and ex-