524 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 



other means. They are the only opportunities vvliich 

 many farmers enjoy of seeing samples ol' the im- 

 proved stock in the country f and of comparing it 

 with what they have themselves. They bring farm- 

 ers together to interchange friend lysympalhies,and 

 to communicate their mutual experiences. They 

 bring men of different professions and conditions 

 together, tl)e prolessional, the literary, the commer- 

 cial, the rnanufactuiing and the agricultural on 

 common ground, and where no jarrings of reli- 

 gious or political parly ou^ht to intermingle ; 

 where those who labor with the head are made 

 to feel their dependence on those who labor with 

 the hand ; and those who labor with the hands 

 recognize their obligations toscience, to commerce, 

 and to the mechanic arts, and find their own pro- 

 fession exalted and their self-respect increased by 

 this unrestrained and mutual intercourse. These 

 cattle shows have been the means of inducing the 

 importation of all the valuable animals, which 

 have been brought into our state through the li- 

 berality of gentlemen of large capital and large 

 minds, in order to improve the stock of domestic 

 animals in our own state. Especially, they keep 

 the great subject of agriculture before the public 

 mind in the light of its intrinsic, permanent, and 

 universal importance. The well-known custom 

 of the emperor of China at the return of every 

 spring, to show his respect for the cultivators of 

 the earth and thus honoring their great art by 

 holding the plough himself in the pre-sence of the 

 dignitaries of the realm and of assembled thou- 

 sands of his subjects, is well known. Its favor- 

 able influence upon the agricultural classes may 

 easily be inferred ; and our cattle shows, bringing 

 together as they do gentlemen of all proiessions, 

 have the same beneficial effects. 



It has been, therefore, to us matter of much re- 

 gret, that the Massachusetts Society "has now for 

 two or three years suspended its annual and ac- 

 customed show at Brighton. We know that it is 

 attended with great labor to the gentlemen of the 

 board of trustees, to get up and superintend a mat- 

 ter so foreign to their accustomed pursuits and ha- 

 bits ; perhaps it is a labor we ought not to ask of 

 them ; but we believe that sixty or a hundred dol- 

 lars would furnish them three or five practical 

 men, who would gladly take all the drudgery of the 

 management off" of their hands, and get it up and 

 carry it through in a manner honorable to the 

 board and entirely satisfactory to the public. We 

 know the labor is considerable, and in such case 

 ought to be compensated ; and we do not know 

 how some portion of their funds could be more 

 properly applied. H. C. 



From Silliman's Journal. 

 CUKSOIIY REMARKS UPON EAST FLORIDA, 

 IN 1838. 



By Maj. Henry Whiting, U. S. Army. 



Public attention has most naturally been turned 

 towards Florida for the last two or three years. 

 That peninsula has been the scene of a contest of 

 remarkable character, awakening a curiosity re- 

 specting its topography, resources, &c. which 

 has found but scanty means of gratification. Al- 

 though the first portion of the United States to be 



permanently occupied, (St. Augustine having 

 been founded in 1564,) and early signalized by 

 political revolutions, military events, and romantic 

 enterprises, yet its history, both statistical and na- 

 tural, has been but imperfectly understood by us. 

 The Spaniards no doubt had a tolerably accurate 

 knowledge of the interior, which was formerly 

 somewhat extensively occupied by them. Their 

 settlements, however, were much broken up du- 

 ring the insurrectionary movements which imme- 

 diately preceded the transfer of jurisdiction to the 

 United States, and the majority of them, when 

 that transfer took place, were abandoned, under 

 the influence of strong national prejudices, which 

 led to a distrust or dislike of a new and dissimilar 

 government. Much local information was thus 

 withdrawn. St. Augustine in the east, and Pen- 

 sacola in the west, with some few subsidiary plan- 

 tations, were all the settlements that came into our 

 possession. The rest was nearly an unoccupied 

 waste. Even a knowledge of the St. John's, the 

 grand artery of the country, had nearly passed 

 away; so much so, that at "the commencement of 

 the present campaign (1837-8) the form, extent, 

 and depth of its upper waters were unascertained. 



The war which has lately been carried on with 

 the Florida Indians has opened the country gene- 

 rally to observation, and its character will here- 

 after be better, if not well understood. Our troops 

 have traversed it in almost every direction; nearly 

 all parts have been explored, excepting the inte- 

 rior of the lower parts of the peninsula south of 

 the Okachobee Lake. From the 26th degree of 

 latitude northward, the geography may be laid 

 down with general accuracy. Indeed, United 

 States maps of this character are already in the 

 hands of some of our officers, which will no doubt 

 soon be lithographed. 



The river St. John's was early entered into 

 both by the French and the Spaniards, the rise 

 and fali of whose establishments there form an in- 

 teresting aud sanguinary portion of history. At 

 the present time (1838) there is scarcely a dwell- 

 ing occupied on either of its banks fifty miles 

 above its mouth, though many evidences of form- 

 er occupancy, such as falling buildings, or fields 

 bearing the marks of having been cultivated, are 

 seen some hundred miles higher up. Many of 

 these farms or plantations were abandoned by the 

 Spaniards, at the change of jurisdiction; others 

 were the work of Americans at a later date. But 

 all had shared a common fate at the opening of 

 the present contest. The Indians burnt all the 

 buikimgs and plundered and massacred all the in- 

 habitants that were not defended by a garrison, 

 and desolation is now seen, where, a few months 

 since, vpere sugar fields, cotton fields, orange 

 groves, and many other proofs of a thriving popu- 

 lation. 



This river (St. John's) is in most respects of a 

 remarkable character. It is unlike most if not all 

 of the rivers in North America, having little cur- 

 rent at any point of its course, and passing 

 through a country, from its very source, so level 

 in its surface, as scarcely to warrant the expecta- 

 tion of any stream at all. At low stages of the 

 water there is no visible current even in the upper 

 parts of the river, though at high stages it is visi- 

 ble, having perhaps a movement of one mile an 

 hour. Below Lake George, which is more than 

 two hundred miles from its mouth, the tides have 



