462 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



sand produces wonderfully. The natural growth of tim- 

 ber on the sandy land is mostly long-leaved pine. On the 

 red lands and creek bottoms, white oak, red oak, live oak, 

 water oak, magnolia, beech, maple, ash, sassafras, dog- 

 wood, cherry, sweet gum, long and short-leaved pine, and 

 some other kinds, perhaps. The country, like all other 

 limestone countries, is not well watered. There are but 

 few mill sites, and stock water in many places is scarce. 

 One singular feature of the country is, full-sized rivers 

 rise suddenly out of some cavern of the earth, and lakes 

 and streams in other places send their waters down into 

 the earth. Wells are frequently hard to obtain, and yet 

 people will not learn that cisterns are better and cheaper, 

 particularly in the red land, which is of such a firm na- 

 ture that no brick work is needed ; the hydraulic cement 

 may be plastered right upon the earth. 



Middle Florida, particularly in the vicinity of Tallahas- 

 see, was settled by a high-bred class of inhabitants, which 

 makes society there very agreeable, and, notwithstanding 

 they are real land destroyers, they are money makers. 

 Nearly all the land is plowed with very small one-horse 

 plows, either home-made or from the manufactory of 

 A. B. Allen & Co., New York.^ The majority of mules 

 are the very meanest to be found in the United States. 

 The advantages offered to any farmer desirous of locat- 



* The editors added the following comment on the .subject of 

 plows and plowing: "It is not our fault that small, cheap plows are 

 taken in preference to those of a larger size. We have shown the 

 advantages to the south of deep plowing over and over again in the 

 Agriculturist; and every summer, when the planters do us the 

 favor of making their annual calls at our establishment, we ver- 

 bally bring the subject up before them. Frank and intelligent 

 gentlemen as they are, they at once acknowledge the truth of what 

 we say; but then, they add, 'it is not quite time yet for us to 

 change our system; deep plowing, we reckon, will come by and by;' 

 and down goes the oi'der again for small plows, and off their rich 

 soil continues to travel into deep gullies and rivers! Time, how- 

 ever, will ultimately work a change for the better, yet not much of 

 one, we fear, in our generation. Our successors will probably reap 

 the harvest from the seed we are now sowing." 



