22 



The fence laws as now in vogue and understood are a pro- 

 lific source of coolness and contention among neighbors, and 

 lead to the commission of many crimes ; and we believe 

 several murders in the State have been committed from 

 feuds growing out of the same. We hope our next leg?s 

 lature will remedy the evil. 



THE FROST LINE 



Much has been written, said and sung in regard to 

 the "frost line" and the "orange belt'' in Florida. There 

 is no portion of Florida where frost has not been observed 

 sometimes; but except in the year '35, we have never heard 

 of any particular damage by frost below the twenty-seventh 

 parallel of latitude, and but seldom has it occurred below 

 the twenty-eighth. About the twenty-eighth to tne Geor- 

 gia line, there are more or less cold waves during the 

 winter, and in many localities considerable damage is done 

 to orange trees, and sometimes the cold is severe enough to 

 injure the fruit. In 1870 71 many young trees were killed 

 to the ground and large quantities of fruit was frozen solid 

 on the trees. The same thing occurred in 1876-7, but the 

 freeze was not so general nor severe in some localities as 

 in others. The cold wave seemed to go in streaks, and was 

 very severe in all the counties lying along the St. Johns 

 from the Georgia line to Brevard. It was very severe in 

 many localities in Duval, St. Johns, Putnam, Volusia and 

 Orange. In Duval, where the writer resides, it occurred 

 only in particular localities. Some groves below, about and 

 above Jacksonville, were hardly singed.- The writer lost 

 three hundred young trees (they were not protected), while 

 his neighbors close by did not receive a scratch. And so it 

 seemed to travel, touching here and there, as far south as 

 Lake Jessup. Even in that year many oranges were frozen 



