23 Geographic Shifts in Florida Citrus Growing
GEOGRAPHIC SHIFTS IN FLORIDA CITRUS GROWING
Frederick L. Bein
University of Florida
Introduction
Citrus was first brought to Florida by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Native Americans distributed it to other parts of the peninsula where it thrived in a wild state until the first Anglo settlers began the cultivation in the early nineteenth century.1 Commercial Citrus was initially located along the Saint Johns River and Tampa Bay where waterways afforded transportation to markets. The Saint Johns River area developed rapidly as a production center, the east coast location making it more accessible to the northern markets of the United States and Europe.
Semi-wild citrus growing along the Saint Johns River 1971 by Rick Bein
Railroad construction in the 1880’s and 1890’s provided transportation to other ports of Florida. An enlarged market for citrus fruit in northern cities was met with increased production in Florida. A general expansion of citrus lands followed, mostly to the south of the earlier producing areas. Since that time, the citrus growing areas of Florida have been shifting to more southerly locations on the peninsula. At the present time little citrus is produced along the lower Saint John’s River where the initial boom took place.
The purpose of this paper is to measure the shifts in the growing areas, past and present, and to determine some reasons why these shifts occur.
Statistical information on the location of citrus groves is available as early as 1880 from the United States Census of Agriculture. This was county data of acreages planted and boxes harvested, and until recently all information has been presented in this manner. County information poses a problem of measuring areal distributions as variation in county size makes it difficult to establish standard size units of production. There is a need for a smaller standard size area for more precision measurement and comparison of relative concentrations of citrus cultivation. One way of creating such a standard areal unit would be to superimpose on the map of Florida a set of uniformly spaced grid lines. (See figure 2.) Thus, the State may be divided into equal area square blocks without reference to the county boundaries. Values assigned to the blocks are derived by noting how many blocks coincide with the county area. The county citrus statistic is then divided by the number of blocks occurring within its border, the quotient providing the value assigned to each of these equal area units. General concentrations of citrus can be shown on a map of Florida though concentrations within the county may be distorted. Information gathered in the last decade by the U.S. Government Agency, Florida Crop and Livestock Reporting Service, is available by township, which provides an equal area unit in itself and makes measurement more accurate.
Measuring the areal distribution of Florida citrus production can be achieved with various C