No. 85.J 521 



rents. But while East Florida may compete with Georgia, and 

 States farther north, in the cultivation of silk, and that too with 

 superior advantages, she will produce several staples in the cultiva- 

 tion of which, they cannot compete with her ; amongst the more im- 

 portant of which will be that of sugar ; and now that the din of 

 war has ceased, and the overflowing scourge that has so long devas- 

 tated this fair portion of Florida has passed by, we may hope soon 

 to see the country settled by an industrious, intelligent and enter- 

 prising people. There is no portion of our country (or perhaps of 

 any other,) that affords greater inducements to the immigration of 

 that class of people, than East Florida. I have visited almost every 

 portion of the United States, and spent many years in the noble val- 

 ley of the Mississippi, (which might, with propriety, be called the 

 garden of the world,) while the country was thin ; I can say with 

 confidence, that I have seen no country where industry^ enterprise 

 and economy y usually met with a better reward, than in East Florida. 

 A catalogue of the crops suitable to the soil and climate, and of the 

 spontaneous vegetable productions, would embrace almost every 

 thing found at the north, with the addition of many others of exceed- 

 ing value, not found in colder latitudes ; among the last, are the 

 orange, and almost every tropical fruit ; and as to the healthiness 

 of the climate, it is too well established to need any comment. 

 Some portions of the army, to be sure, suffered much from disease, 

 during the late Indian hostilities ; but I am told that an examina- 

 tion of its statistics will show that it suffered less from that cause, in 

 Florida, in proportion to numbers, than it did on the northern and 

 northwestern frontier, during the last war with England. 



The temperature is a pleasant medium between the extremes of 

 heat and cold. By a register of the weather, kept for two years at 

 Charlotte Harbor, the mercury never stood, but once, as high as 90°, 

 nor sunk, but once, as low as 50°. Further north, the extremes are 

 somewhat greater ; but at St. Augustine, the mercury seldom rises 

 above 90°, or falls below 30°. But, to use the language of a writer 

 in a late number of that valuable work. The Journal of the Ameri- 

 can Institute ; " there are other considerations of high import to the 

 enterprising agriculturist in favor of locating in East Florida. It 

 has been satisfactorily proved, by the late indefatigable and much to 

 be lamented Doctor Ferine, that almost any article grown between 

 the tropics, will flourish as well, and in some cases better, than in 

 their native soil ; and the entire catalogue of spices, and other articles 

 for which we now make long and perilous voyages to the opposite 

 side of the globe, — often to unhealthy climates, and always incurring 

 vast expense, — -can be grown in our own territory, and furnished at a 

 cheaper rate, and in better order, than those obtained of the half 

 civilized Asiatic Islanders. In addition to all which, cattle, horses 

 and hogs, may be raised, in any numbers, upon our fine grazing lands, 

 with little or no attention from man. Our lakes and rivers abound 

 with fish, of the greatest variety and best quality; our woodlands 



[Senate, No. 85.] Ii 



