528 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 9 



an important article of commerce. The oranges 

 of Florida excelled all others in I he norlliern mar- 

 kets. More than two millions, were annually 

 shipped from St. Augustine alone. One tree 

 there is said to have produced six thousand in one 

 year. But ihis staple of the country was cut 

 down in one night, in 1835. A severe frost oc- 

 curred ii\ the time ot' Bertram, (1765,) which kill- 

 ed the lemon, citron, and other tender trees, but 

 only partially injured the orange. There were 

 trees standing in 1835, more than a century old. 



This calamitous event, besides destroying one 

 of the principal sources of revenue of St. Augus- 

 line, divested the place of ils chief ornament. 

 Each lot became, as it were, denuded of its dra- 

 pery, which had been thrown over every building, 

 high and low, giving them all a borrowed beauty. 

 A person who was absent at the time of the frost, 

 in revisitinir the place, could scarcely recognize 

 the most familiar scenes, their aspect was so en- 

 tirely changed. It takes about seven years to re- 

 new the orange tree to a bearing state. 



Cotton and sugar grow well in Florida, but silk 

 will probably be the staple of the country after a 

 few years. The mulberry tree, mullicaulis, &c., 

 grow there with a vigor and luxuriance that have 

 no parallel in the United States. More than eight 

 months in the year afford a fulness of food for the 

 worms. 



The soil of Florida wears a forbidding aspect. 

 Sandy barrens form the principal part of the sur- 

 face. Hammock land, that which bears the oak, 

 maple, and other "hard woods," and which are 

 the richer and more productive parts, constitutes 

 but a small proportion. But the sands of Florida 

 are but in part siliceous. They are probably for 

 the most part comminuted shells or lime-stone. 

 Hence they have a degree of fertility which often 

 surprises those who undertake their cultivation. 

 The surface, however, is so level, that it is liable 

 to the extremes of drought and inundation. In 

 riding from the St. John's to St. Augustine, a dis- 

 tance of eighteen miles, the road will be found, af- 

 ter a moderate rain, one-half or two-thirds under 

 water, which is carried off more by evaporation 

 than by subsidence; and this is a sample of the 

 country in general. 



The yellow pine, pinus palustris, is a conspicu- 

 ous tree in Florida, both on account of its lofty 

 symmetry, and its adaptation to many usefiil pur- 

 poses. It affords tar and turpentine In inexhausti- 

 ble abundance, and is an equally inexhaustible 

 material for lumber. Whether it be the only 

 growth the soil can yield, or merely a pre-occu- 

 pant, as in many other parts of the country, giv- 

 ing place, when removed, to a species of hard 

 wood, is, perhaps, not yet ascertained. It is pro- 

 pable, however, that when this tree shall be cut 

 down, and fires, scorching the whole fiice of the 

 country, shall cease, the growth of the forest lands 

 will assume a better aspect, and that the soil will 

 improve in a corresponding degree. It is the 

 fallen tree of this pine, which furnishes the Indian 

 with his ''light-wood;" a source of comfort and 

 convenience that strongly attaches him to the 

 soil which produces it. The fuel formed from 

 these prostrate trunks, is at hand on every spot, 

 and is easily ignited, making, in all weathers, a 

 bright and durable fire. The nights of Florida 

 are almost invariably cool, and the facility with 

 which the Florida Indian can temper their chilli- 



ness, by means of this ready and combustible 

 wood, is a conspicuous item in the privileges of 

 his liffe, the great design of which is to attain desi- 

 rable objects with the least effort. Our troops, in 

 the late campaigns, have been equally indebted to 

 it for many a comfortable encampment, as. even 

 in the midst of heavy rains, a brilliant fire might 

 be kindled, which, with due care, no rains could 

 extinguish. 



The hammocks at present are generally secure 

 from encroachment from the barrens, being most- 

 ly covered with a dense growth of trees, which 

 preserves them li'om change. But, whenever 

 the time arrives in which they shall be cleared up, 

 and become exposed to external influences, it is 

 not unlikely that the surrounding barrens, clothed 

 in a soil of such levity as to be acted upon by 

 winds and rains, will gradually overspread these 

 comparatively small spots on the surface of the 

 country, and reduce nearl}' the whole to one gene- 

 ral character. 



The waters of Florida abound in fish. Even 

 the upper parts of the St. John's afford a large 

 supply of very tolerable quality. But the lagoons 

 of the coast have not only an abundance of the 

 finest fish, but also of the finest oysters. The 

 oysters of Indian river are surpassed by none, in 

 size or qualify, on the Atlantic coast. Want 

 could never approach the inhabitants of that 

 region. 



The present war, during which the Indians 

 have been too much harassed to attend to seed- 

 time or harvest, has turned attention to the class 

 of indigenous esculent vegetables, which, by their 

 spontaneous abundance, have, through the extre- 

 mities of this period, afibrded them ample means 

 of subsistence. The most conspicuous among 

 these are the red and white coonta roots. The 

 first is the China-brier, or Smilax china, a vine of 

 great thriftiness, spreading sometimes over the 

 space of more than a hundred feet, with roots like 

 a large, long and irregular potato. The white 

 coonta is the Zamia integrifolia, which has a fiill 

 tap-root, rounded with the symmetry of a boy's 

 top. The leaves are large and fern-like, forming, 

 when the seed-bud is in its flilness, a handsome 

 plant. 



Both of these roots are grated or bruised by the 

 Indians, and the starch separated, by frequent 

 changes of water, from the fibrous or woody parts, 

 as also, in the white coonta, from a poisonous 

 quality which is combined with it in its natural 

 state. The flour of the latter has the look and 

 feel of arrow-root, and is equally nutrhious and 

 well suited to weak stomachs. The flour of the 

 China-brier is of a reddish hue, and more easily 

 obtained than I he white coonta. 



These two important articles of food are found 

 in abundance, the one or the other, in most parts 

 of southern Florida; the China-brier in nearly all 

 the hammocks, and the Zamia in most of the bar- 

 rens along the coast lagoons. Tliousands could 

 subsist upon them, with only the labor necessary 

 to gather the roots and prepare the flour. Pre- 

 vious to the war, one or tv/o persons were estab- 

 lished near Cape Florida, who manufactured the 

 while coonta in large quantities for shipment. 

 Medical men often prefer it, for hospital purposes, 

 to the arrow-root. 



The palmetto is often called the cabbage-tree, 

 from its containing an edible substance within its 



