One of the most valuable guides to Florida during the 1930s is the detailed description of the state compiled by the Federal Writers' Project. In a chapter on agriculture, the writers looked at farming in southern Florida:

South Florida, with the rich Everglades muck lands, is one of the winter 'market baskets' of the States east of the Mississippi. Vegetables became the leading crop within a relatively short period, during which governmental and private research proved the adaptability of the local soils to crops formerly confined to the central and northern producing areas of the State. This development has lengthened Florida's growing season without creating serious competition with other shippers, many of whose peak crops go to market in other months of the year.

The harvest season starts in September when the grapefruit ripen and the first carloads of vegetables are shipped in October. Irish potatoes, string beans, peppers, lima beans, green corn, cabbages, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, English peas, and other varieties of garden truck are harvested throughout the winter and spring. The growing of avocadoes, coconuts and papayas repays the producer, lends color to the Florida scene, and has considerable value as a tourist attraction. Vegetable shipments reach a peak in March and decline thereafter until May; a few mixed carloads go out to eastern markets in June and July, leaving only August and September when no carload shipments are made. About 18,000 carloads of fresh vegetables were shipped from south Florida in the 1936-37 season, about four times the quantity of citrus shipped from the same area.

From The WPA Guide to Florida: The Federal Writers' Project Guide to 1930s Florida (1939), 1984 reprint, pp. 79-80.