DISCOVER THE SECRET PATH TO A PIONEER PAST:
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Focus of farmers has changed in Flagler
By MORRIS SULLIVAN
NEWS-JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT
BUNNELL — Tourism and beautiful beaches aside, Flagler County was built on an economic foundation that began with agriculture. But that segment is diminishing, say local agriculture experts and farmers.
Until the railroads arrived in the 1880s, most Flagler County settlers lived off the land.
“The first people who settled here mainly did turpentining and logging,” said local historian John A. “Jack” Clegg.
Bunnell grew up around a whistle-stop that was itself a sort of side-effect of the industry when Alvah A. Bunnell built a cypress shingle mill and, as a side operation, sold wood for the steam-driven locomotives.
After the land was cleared by loggers, much of it was planted in citrus. Some hard freezes drove that business away, however, and cabbages and potatoes took the place of orange trees.
Today, agriculture accounts for more than $50 million coming into the Flagler County economy, with most of it grown on 500-acre-plus farms and shipped out of state.
About 20 percent of local farmers still grow cabbages and potatoes, and another 20 percent is descended directly from another historic product — trees.
Shannon Strickland’s grandfather was a pioneer. He arrived in the mid-1930s and set up a turpentining operation.
“He started with turpentining, then moved into harvesting lumber, then cattle. A lot of things have progressed since then,” said Strickland, who owns Strickland Brothers Sod Farm.
The operation still farms trees and raises cattle but became one of the first to grow a new crop — turf grass for lawns in growing communities along coastal states.
“We still do cows and timber, but we switched to sod about 15 years ago,” Strickland said.
They began with the standards and now grow not only St. Augustine and Bahia, but Bermuda and Palmetto, a variety of St. Augustine grass that “is more shade tolerant.”
About 80 percent of the sod goes to cities “between New Smyrna Beach and South Jacksonville,” he said. “We used to sell a lot more out of state, to Hilton Head and places like that.
“Some still does leave Florida” but more farmers north of Jacksonville now serve South Carolina and Georgia.
Sod farming is a growing segment of Flagler County agribusiness, and was initially a lucrative product.
“But there are a lot of people getting into it, so that’s changing,” Strickland said. “There are a lot of market changes in agriculture, and you have to keep up with them.”
For example, he said his business moved into growing more landscape nursery-type plants.
“I don’t think we’ll see the same presence of agriculture over the next 10 years,” Strickland said.
Agriculture, he explained, “is a way to make a living, but not a good way. No matter what the crop, I don’t think the economics are there to support it.”
