St 
ever, proving an entire failure. The banks of the St. Mary’s river, in the 
southwestern part of the State, is represented as a very paradise for this fruit. 
Our Clarke correspondent writes: “ All fruits do well. Dr. Berckman, the pom- 
ologist, said at one of our fairs that our pears were better in quality and appear- 
ance than any he had ever seen, and he had witnessed many displays in Europe 
and the United States. Dr. B. has now, near Augusta, 20,000 seedling pears to 
test. Our only trouble is late spring frost. This we avoid by heavy smoke 
early in the morning after a frost. Native winter apples do well, but northern 
varieties ripen too early. Figs and grapes do well.” Grape culture has not 
been so generally successful as that of many other fruits, but many of our cor- 
respondents speak encouragingly. From Warren county we have: “Grapes 
do well here, and are highly profitable, but have been shamefully neglected. 
Some years ago a neighbor had ten vines growing in his garden, from which in 
one season he made 300 gallons of wine.” From Cherokee: “The few vines 
that have been attended to are doing well, proving that our soil and climate are 
adapted to the culture. A. K. made last season, from a vineyard of perhaps 
three acres, left for years without cultivation, about ninety gallons of wine, 
(Catawba;) W. G., from a quarter acre made about twelve gallons.”’ In Bald- 
win county “on an aere and a half vineyard a gentleman made about 600 gal- 
jJons of wine, and will probably realize $1,400 net, or 150 per cent. on capital.’’ 
In Taylor, Crawford and Charlton the Seuppernong grape is a perfect success, 
growing luxuriantly and with little trouble, the fruit being large and rich; the 
vines bear the third year and are not subject to decay. A single vine in ten to 
fifteen years will extend over an arbor 100 feet square. Wild grapes are found 
in abundance. In fact, all fruits not strictly tropical may be cultivated in Georgia 
with success. 
FLORIDA. 
1. Our returns from Florida are rather meagre, only about one-fourth of the 
counties furnishing responses to the circular sent out. From the northern tisr 
of counties Jackson and Leon report an average decline of seventy-five per cent. 
in the value of farm lands since 1860, and Liberty fifty per cent. decrease ; 
while in Duval interior lands have declined twenty per cent., but on the St. 
John’s river have advanced one-third in value since the date named; and in 
Baker the estimated increase is fifty per cent. Alachua county shows a decline 
of fifty per cent. The next county south reports no change since 1860, our 
correspondent remarking that but few persons there own the land they live upon, 
the custom being to “settle in the woods, put up a log-house, clear a small tract 
and plant it for a few years, and when it begins to get poor move into the woods 
again, or move about where the range is good for cattle. There are, however, 
some fine farms near the county seat, where good corn and some cotton is raised. 
The value of improved lands is increased by cow-penning. The land is worth 
from five dollars to twenty dollars per acre. Good pine land can be bought at 
five dollars per acre, with houses, fences,” &c. Still further south in Manatee 
county, bordering on the cypress swamp regions, lands are rated at one-half the esti- 
mated value in 1860. In fact, throughout the State the prices now given for 
farming lands are merely nominal, consequent upon the unsettled state of affairs, 
and comparatively few sales are made. ‘T'he average decrease for the State, on 
the basis of these returns, is 55 per cent. 
2. There is a large area of wild or unimproved lands in the State held at fig- 
ures varying from ten cents to eight dollars, averaging from one dollar to two 
dollars per acre. In Jackson the unimproved lands are claimed to be better 
than the nominally improved—will yield from ten to twenty bushels of corn, or 
from six hundred to one thousand pounds of seed cotton to the acre, and may 
be purchased at from one dollar to two dollars per acre. In Liberty the aver- 
age value is given as low as ten cents—land low, sandy hommock, capable of 
