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One question most asked of me is "How, or did they, really farm the Upper
Keys?" Farming was one of the methods, like fishing, the wrecker used to
tide himself over between salvaging shipwrecks. As the wrecking industry
began to close in the latter 1800s, the farming industry expanded.
We can easily assume that early families raised sufficient plant foods
to support their own needs and probably enough to trade with neighbors
(if there were any) for other necessities of life. One looking for old
housing sites can readily spot them by the telltale signs of date palms,
sapodillas, guavas, mangoes and other fruit trees. Usually the remains
of a water cistern are nearby. Every homesteader grew their own fruit from
trees that the early Bahamian settlers knew would thrive in the limestone
soil of the Keys. Raising animals for meat was not as critical in the Keys
because of the quantity of marine life, but it was still done on a limited
basis. The farming I refer to here is an industry and not just for family
sustenance. One reason farming was more successful in the Upper Keys than
the Lower Keys was that the Upper Keys generally received about 20 inches
more annual rainfall.
As an industry, I propose that Dr. Perrine made the first real attempt
at farming on Indian Key and surrounding Keys beginning in the late 1830s.
His goal was to make south Florida a tropical agricultural center. He incorporated
The Tropical Plant Company in 1838. Indians killed Dr. Perrine in August
of 1840 and burned the island.
Francis Gerdes in his 1848 written account An Interesting Journal On
Florida Reefs gives a hint that there was farming on Key Largo by using
the word 'plantation.' On January 29 he writes, "After leaving Indian Key,
no more settlements appear on the islands up to Cape Florida. A plantation
on Kay Largo opposite Rodriguez was abandoned, the house is empty." Whether
it was abandoned because of the previous Indian War, unsuccessful, or some
other reason is not known.
There is some evidence that during the Civil War (1861-65) Key West was
overcrowded with refugees and others. It is not clear whether it was the
military or businessmen, but people were sent to the Cape Sable area to
grow food for Key West. I submit that they could have gone to other places
also.
It is generally accepted and partially substantiated that Captain Ben Baker
of the wrecking ship Rapid from Key West was the first large producer
of pineapples in the Upper Keys. The 1850 census shows him living in Key
West as a 32-year-old mariner. By the mid-1860s, Captain Baker had pineapple
plantations on Plantation Key and Key Largo. While overseeing his plantations,
he watched for possible shipwrecks occurring on Molasses and Carysfort
reefs.
In 1870, a Benjamin Baker opened a post office in the Rock Harbor area,
i.e., about Mile Marker 97. The island of Key Largo was not surveyed until
1872 so the exact location is not on his post office application. Dr. J.
B. Holder writing for the
Harper's Magazine in 1871 wrote "Mr. Baker,
the owner, who resides in Key West, is reported to have realized seven
thousand dollars this summer from his crop of pineapples...." The 1880
census shows Baker living somewhere north of Planter. In 1882, a Benjamin
Baker homesteaded 160 acres now identified as the Rock Harbor area as it
has been surveyed. Miss Lamar Louise Curry, whose father owned one mile
from ocean to bay, told me that as a child she saw the grave site of Captain
Baker in that general area. I submit that there is sufficient documentation
that Baker existed, farmed pineapples and lived in the Rock Harbor area.
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The Key West column of the December 27, 1884 Fort Myers Press stated,
"Many of the leading merchants own tracts of land on the Keys which are
entirely devoted to the culture of pineapples, tomatoes, Irish potatoes,
sweet potatoes, cabbage, cassava, tapias, beets, carrots, turnips, and
various tropical fruits which flourish in abundance. The average shipments
of pineapples alone will reach more than $200,000 per annum." On June 20,
1885 it again stated that "The best melons for this season come from Key
Largo."
We get a clue of how farming was done from Andrew P. Canova, who wrote
in his Life and Adventures in South Florida in 1885: "On different
portions of Upper Matecumbe, in May, 1880, were little patches of deep
soil, called by the inhabitants 'Red Holes.' These curious spots are from
15 to 30 feet in diameter and take their name from the peculiar, reddish
color of the soil contained in them. Scarcely any rocks are found in these
spots, and the fruit growers select them on that account as a place to
plant bananas and tropical fruit trees. . . . Messrs. Pinder and Saunders
were raising pineapples and made immense shipments in 1881 and 1882. The
manner of cultivation was peculiar. No hoe could be used because of the
shallowness of the soil. The plants were set 18 inches apart, and left
mostly to themselves. One weeding was considered sufficient. . . . On Plantation
Key a Mr. Low [Lowe] had a pineapple and coconut grove. The pineapple grove
was 30 acres in size and the crop that year [1880] was doing so well that
he expected to cut at least 96,000 pineapples. . . ."
Farming was a completely new industry for the Keys in the 1800s. Wrecking,
sponging, fishing, turtling, lumbering were expected, but not farming!
One thing that held farming back was lack of adequate transportation of
perishable goods to a distant market. The local market was Key West, but
only for relatively small quantities. Large quantities had to be taken
to Key West and trans-shipped to northern seaports. Fortunately, the steamship
was becoming available and lighthouses were operable, but it was still
a four, or six-day trip after loading and departing from Key West. It was
possible to ship directly by using locally owned sailboats or by leasing
a ship for this purpose. One successful trip was reportedly made when wrecker
Bradish "Hog" Johnson loaded his schooner Irene from Key Largo and
Elliott Key and delivered pineapples to New Jersey five-and-a-half days
later. The Plantation Key built 58 foot Island Home was typically
the means shipping between Miami and Key West.
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A
Baltimore, Maryland company opened a pineapple cannery in Key West in the
1880s. It would operate about four months a year - April, May, June and
July - canning the fruit. The cannery was located near the present day
Pier House. For some reason it ceased operation in the the 1890s. In the
1930 depression Norberg Thompson opened another pineapple cannery using
Cuban pineapples on Eaton Street. It ceased operation shortly after the
1935 Hurricane destroyed the railroad.
Small canneries
have been reported on the mainland in the Coconut Grove area. When interviewed
in 1964, Bertram Pinder told of a cannery being built by his grandfather
(Adolphus Pinder) around 1891 to can tomatoes on Upper Matecumbe Key. It
operated for about two year before closing to retrofit for canning pineapples.
It never reopened and about 10,000 cans were left unused. The building
was badly damaged by the 1906 Hurricane and totally washed away by the
1935 Hurricane.
Once the Flagler railroad was in operation, local shipments could be made
to Jacksonville in a couple of days; however, expensive unloading, repacking
and reloading were necessary. Flagler also gave more favorable tariffs
to foreign imports than local cargo.
The pineapple is of the family Bromelia and has seeds, but takes up to
ten years to produce from the seed. It can be reproduced faster from "suckers,"
"slips" and/or the "crown." Depending on which source is used, it takes
from twelve to twenty-four months to mature and ripen. Each plant produces
only one fruit. The suckers from the base will continue to produce fruit
for several years, but of an inferior quality. The usual method is to plant
six-to-ten-thousand slips per acre in the rainy season. About two-thirds
will be productive.
The following data came from an original document submitted to Flagler's
Engineer, William J. Krome, by an associate engineer, Frank H. Hakell,
on December 22, 1904: "... Upper Matecumbe Key - Agricultural conditions:
The Key is very fertile, and is farmed quite extensively. The following
is an average list of produce shipped each year.
John H. Russell
Pine Apples
1375 crates
Tomatoes
1400 "
Limes
60 "
Sugar Apples
200 boxes
Bananas
200 bunches
Cephas
Pinder
Oranges
4000 crates
Grapefruit
1000 "
Avocado Pears 500 "
Sugar Apples 1000 "
Tomatoes
1500 " ...."
After Flagler completed the railroad to Key West and began bringing in
pineapples from Havana, a large repacking shed had to be built in Key West.
The Cubans packed the railroad cars much too densely to survive the additional
shipment time to the more distant, northern markets. When packed tightly
they were bruised and overheated during the longer voyage. For example,
the Key West Citizen reported on May 27, 1929, "The largest shipment
of the season arrived here Saturday night. . . . There were 60 carloads
coming in. After transfer to other cars was made here yesterday, the outgoing
shipment totaled 109 cars." In 1934 one train alone transported 134 freight
cars of Cuban repacked pineapples to Miami.
My copy of an April 1905 Florida East Coast Railway construction survey
of Plantation Key shows 3 tomato fields, 4 pineapple fields, 2 alligator
pear [avocado] groves, 3 coconut groves, 1 lime grove, 2 sugar apple groves,
one orange grove and 3 abandoned fields. The following year there was a
severe hurricane and pineapple blight, both of which were repeated in 1909.
A few years later, Flagler brought in the cheaper Cuban pineapples and
this ushered in the key lime to replace the Keys’ pineapple. Upper Keys
pineapple farming was doomed. The previous large train shipments were Cuban
pineapples.
Citrus originated in Asia where the Crusaders took them to Europe. Limes
were popular for early sailors to prevent scurvy on their long voyages.
Exactly how limes began on the Keys is not known. Some say the early Spanish
sailors brought them, some credit Dr. Perrine, but we really do not know.
The key lime is the Mexican lime, the specie Citrus aurantifolia
and was the one grown in the Keys. The aforementioned set of 1905 surveys
also shows a lime grove in Rock Harbor on the William Dunham Albury homestead.
The Florida Times-Union newspaper of November 28, 1917 stated in
its column "Islamorada Notes" that "There are thirty families living on
the island: tomatoes, onions and limes are the principal crops. There are
183 acres of lime groves and about 100 acres of tomatoes and onions planted
this season. [For an idea the original 1870s survey indicated Upper Matecumbe
Key to be 848.61 acres in size.] The farmers will commence shipping tomatoes
about December and will continue shipping until April. The best tomatoes
grown are grown in the Florida Keys."
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Newspapers reported that the Upper Keys [including Elliott Key] were shipping
out 60,000 crates of limes a year, but this figure dwindled to 10,000 by
1931. One of the larger growers was W. N. Hull who owned seven groves and
a packing house near the F.E.C. Key Largo depot at mile marker (MM) 105.5.
The groves were managed locally by C.C. Chapman, who operated a large packing
house near the north end of the Key Largo depot railroad siding (MM 105.5).
However, just as the cheaper Havana pineapple took the market from the
superior quality Key pineapple, the introduction of the seedless Persian
lime in southern Dade County took its toll on the Key lime. The Persian,
plus other Mexican limes, were shipped in and repacked in Florida crates,
ending key lime farming as an industry for the Upper Keys.
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With the opening of the first Overseas Highway in 1928, land began to be
more valuable for development than for farming. For example, on Key Largo,
beginning with the North Carolina Fishing Camp Subdivision, from 1924 to
1930 twenty-six new subdivisions were platted. Most of these were by new
landowners in contrast to the Key Largo pioneers. Another reason for the
decrease of farming was the decrease in surface fresh water. Development
on the mainland beginning in the early 1900s required many new canals to
drain the land as well as to prevent flooding. The cutting on the deep
canals dropped the fresh water table five to seven feet in the Keys. Diversion
to the easier way of life of charter fishing perhaps was also an influence.
The 1935 hurricane gave the coup de grace, and 1935 can be considered as
the beginning of the end of the Keys’ farming industry. This of course
was not the end of small holdings of one to five acres, but even these
began to give way to development. The farms got smaller, but the work remained
just as hard. In my opinion, farming died in the Upper Keys when Hector
Emanuel Clark of Newport "just got too old to do it." Hector came from
Grand Turk Island to Miami in 1924 and settled on Key Largo in 1933. He
hacked out a few acres in Newport and grew just about everything, but specialized
in Keys tomatoes.
Keys farming and the tomato are gone as might be the key lime. They were
grown in natural Keys soils, such as the 'red Holes' which is rare today.
Most of us live on landfill dredged from canals. While this is probably
not the true meaning of historic preservation, I would like to suggest
that every Keys family plant at least one key lime tree. It likes sun and
is fairly salt tolerant. The lignumvitae tree is another suggestion should
one not want a fruit tree, but it is a slow grower. -----End-----
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