1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



85 



[lariiculiir history of our actually great staples of 

 the south and southwest, viz.: tropical rice, to- 

 hacco, cotton, and sugar; and 3d, The liict that 

 kindred species of many profitable plants which 

 will he still more important objects of agriculture, 

 are indiii;cnous to our worst soils between the Po- 

 tomac dnd the IVlississi[)pi, viz.: ol" Agave an 1 

 Yucca. In relation to the extension of a pecu- 

 liarly favorable climate of the tropics into south- 

 ern Florida, your conmiittee believes that the me- 

 nicralist has demonstrated its existence by the 

 meteorological taltles annexed to this report. In 

 relation to the inmiediate propagation of tropical 

 plants in tropical Florida, on the most arid, the 

 most humid, and hitherto most worthless soils, 

 your committee believes that the memorialist has 

 shown its great probability by the interesting lacts 

 and statements made and collected by him, and 

 which are annexed to this report. And in rela- 

 tion to the gradual acclimation, at least the fi- 

 brous-leaved plants, whose Ibliaceous fibres are 

 superior substitutes (or flax and hemp, your com- 

 mittee coincides with the memorialist in his opin- 

 ion, that the tropical species may gradually extend 

 over the most steril districts of all our southern 

 states, and that the indigenous species may be 

 gradually propagated in the worst soils of our 

 northern states. Hitherto, southern Florida has 

 been considered so sickly and so steril as to be un- 

 worthy the expense and trouble of surveying and 

 of sale; and, even now, it is seriously contended 

 that this section of the Territory is uninhabitable 

 by the white man, and should, therefore, be aban- 

 doned to the savages and runaway negroes from 

 the neighboring states. At all events, it is con- 

 ceded that many millions of acres are incapable 

 of producing any article now cultivated in the 

 United States, and must lie unemployed and use- 

 less for many years, without some experiment 

 such as Dr. Perrine proposes. Hence, when the 

 Indians shall be expelled from the pestilential 

 swamps and impenetrable morasses of southern 

 Florida, they may again become the impregnable 

 fortresses for fugitive negroes and practical out- 

 laws, who will be still more dangerous enemies to 

 the tranquillity of our southern states than the ac- 

 tual savage Seminoles. But if the suggestions 

 of the memorialist, and if his experiments should 

 be successful, the arid sands and arid rocks, and 

 mangrove thickets of the coast, the miry marshes, 

 pestilential swamps, and impenetrable morasses 

 of the interior, may all, ultimately, be covered by 

 a dense population of small cultivators, and of 

 family manufacturers; and tropical Florida will 

 thus form a well garrisoned bulwark against inva- 

 sion in every shape and shade. Even the sta- 

 tistics of Cuba demonstrate that this celebrated 

 island owes its prosperity and its safety much more 

 to its numerous small cultivators of fruits and ve- 

 getables, than to its few large planters of sugar 

 and cofi'ee; and hence it may be considered for1u- 

 nate for all Florida that its southern surface does 

 not embrace any large tracts of rich soil adapted 

 to the great staples of great planters. Hitherto, 

 the old southern states have been drained of their 

 rural population by the emigration of their sons to 

 the fertite plains of the valley of the Mississippi 

 and Ohio. By the introduction of such new sta- 

 ples as can be propagated, on the worst soils of 

 the old states, more profitably than their old sta- 

 ples can be cultivated on the best soils of the new 



states, emigration from the south will be prevented, 

 and even its ruined fields and barren wastes will 

 become covered with a den.«e population of small 

 cultivators; and that rural population may be tri- 

 pled by the employment of new staples in the 

 really domestic manuliictnres of their liirnis, fami- 

 lies, and limiales. At all events, the numerous 

 small cultivators of the south would thus be ena- 

 hleil to furnish the cheapest possible raw materials 

 li)r the numerous small manutiicturersof the north, 

 and would hence create, mutually, a profitable 

 and harmonious dependence on each other of the 

 invdt pacific masses of population in both sections 

 of the Union. With these views of the national 

 importance of the enterprise of Dr. Perrine, your 

 committee have determined to report a bill, on 

 such conditions as will render it barely possible 

 for him to attract associates and capital to the aid 

 of his luture labors, with unity in design, harmo- 

 ny in co-operation, and perseverance in pursuit. 

 Under the conditions imposed, he only hopes to 

 get co-operators among those patriotic persons, 

 who will be influenced by the lacts, arguments, 

 and feelings which convinced his own mind o( the 

 great probability of ultimate success, and which, 

 therefore, renders him willing to undergo all the 

 intermediate privations and perils of property and 

 [lerson incident to the prosecution of the enterprise. 



In other countries, an undertaking of such mag- 

 nitude is the especial duty of the government; 

 but, in the United States, we are indebted to in-, 

 dividual zeal and perseverance for the origin and 

 prosecution of the grandest plans of national 

 utility. 



On the 28th of April, 1832, the Committee on 

 Agriculture of the House of Representatives re- 

 ported a similar bill; and your committee now re- 

 il^'r to the accompanying report and other docu- 

 ments. Your committee need not dwell on the 

 services of the memorialist, nor recite the prece- 

 dents of equivalent grants to foreigners, as the 

 memorialist is content to rest his claim solely on 

 the merit of the enterprise, with the fiicts that by 

 the terms of the bill now reported, if he succeed, 

 the government and the country will be benefited 

 in the proportion of a thousand to one, and if 

 he tail, himself and his associates will be alone 

 ruined. From the specimens of fibrous-leaved 

 plants and of fbliaceous fibrous submitted to your 

 committee, they are convinced that if those 

 plants alone can be propagated in southern Flo- 

 rida, of which they have no reasonable doubt, 

 they will form highly important additions to the 

 agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of the 

 Union. The committee annex to this report seve- 

 ral explanatory letters and other important docu- 

 ments, from one to four. 



INTRODUCTION OF TROPICAL PLANTS. 



[The following communication from Dr. Perrine, 

 arrived after the foregoing pieces, on the same sub- 

 ject, were in type,] 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Washington, D. C, llth April, 1838. 

 Sir — Five days since, the subscriber had the 

 honor to direct to you a copy of the 'Report of the 

 Committee on Agriculture' of the House of Re- 

 presentatives, accompanying the bill to encourage 

 the introduction, &c. of tropical plants; and he 



