~ 
[ 300 ] : 30 
in south Florida, is much more worthy of a special voyage of one of our 
largest vessels, than was the introduction of the celebrated bread-fruit tree 
in the West Indies. In proportion to the gradual propagation of valuable 
tropical plants throughout. the forests of tropical Florida, the useless na- 
tive undergrowth and trees, may be as gradually extirpated from the ground, 
an 
will be the work of years, it is true; but with us, it need not be a work 
of many years. With our industrious people, under our free institutions, 
much more formidable enterprises have been promptly executed, whenever 
they became objects of national policy or of popular desire. 
_ 'The course of the Gulf stream and the origin of St. John’s river indicate 
that the southern division of Florida is more elevated than the northern, 
and the swampy inte ' 
sandy shore. Hence, cheap canals may easily be cut from the longitudi- 
nal centre to the parallel coast to drain the inundated swamps of, the in- 
. ‘ = 
terior, whose cons 
great natural canal of the peninsula, the St. John’s river, and the great 
of the irrigated sands, could always command the most appropriate quan- 
tity of moisture for every variety of their respective soils, and for every 
i i i nd hence thei 
species of their peculiar staples; a elr vegeculture. would: be 
much more.certain, prolonged, and productive, than can be t iculture 
of any territory whi dependant on the clouds alone.* ‘Looking for- 
war. the period when tropical Florida shall be thoroughly improved 
and highly cultivated—when its forests shall be by the most valuable 
vegetables which delight in the shade, and its fields shall be ¢ y 
privations and exposures incident to a chief pioneer in the planting. and 
population of tropical Florida, If the swamps amd sands at thee Gaox- 
Plored district be as sickly and sterile as they are generally su posed to be, 
the grant of a portion of this worthless Territory cannot of ) 
_ *{n tropical climates, moisture is 
i irrigation. H, P. 
+ 
7 
