1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



683 



not interfere with the interests of the public ser- 

 vice, towards the accomplishment of the objects 

 he has in vieWj and which he will make i<novvn 

 to them. J. R. Poinsett. 



War Department, July IBth, 1S33. 



To Col. Harney, U. S. A- at Cape Florida. 



Indian Key, T. F. Srd May, 1839. 

 Sir — I have the honor to' send you a copy of a 

 circular i'rom the Hon. Secretary of War with tiie 

 simple request for the negative aid that you will 

 not permit any person to extract any valuable 

 plants from the vicinity of Cape Florida, without 

 a written order from the undoubted owner of said 

 plants; especially any near the lighthouse, or at 

 the improvements of John Dubose, ne-ir the (iills 

 of the Miami river, or at the improvements of his 

 sons Elias or John, on the bay. 

 Very respect faliy. 



Your obedient servant, 



Henry Perrine, 

 Superintendent of the T. P. C. 



To the Editor of llic Farmers' Register. 



1 respectfully transmit to you the copies of the 

 special letter and general circular of instructions 

 of the Hon. Secretary of War, and the copy of the 

 only written request, ever made under the gene- 

 ral circular, to Col. Harney, of the United States 

 Army, at Cape Florida. Under these conditional 

 instructions 1 have barely entertained only two 

 humble hopes. 1st. To remove a lew plants from 

 a lew spots in the destructive possession of red- 

 men. 2. To preserve the same plants in the same 

 spots from the destructive power of white men. 

 The date of my letter to Col. H. shows the end of 

 my first hope, and the beginning of my last hope. 

 Up to the present date those kind instructions have 

 resulted in nothing. These brief facts are sub- 

 mitted to the spontaneous comments of all intelli- 

 gent readers over forty years of age, who have 

 had much experimental knowledge of the subor- 

 dinate workings of governmental machinery in dis- 

 tant deserts. Such readers will also readily con- 

 ceive the sad details which prove the utter impos- 

 sibility of effecting any agricultural improvement 

 in south Florida by the fettered exertions of pri- 

 vate individuals, or by the combined funds of char- 

 tered companies, so long as even the armies of the 

 United States cannot afford any protection to the 

 persons or pursuits of agriculturists on the main- 

 land by repulsion of the savage Seminoles from 

 the southern coast; and so long as the govern- 

 ment of the United States does not remove its own 

 governmental obstacles to individual industry by 

 opening ports of entry near the southern extremi- 

 ties of the peninsula. And such readers will 

 moreover duly reflect on the important fact that 

 ever since the creation of our government, we have 

 never had, in any cabinet, a single member, who, 

 by a long residence in tropical regions, could have 

 become thoroughly qualified to appreciate proper- 

 ly the great national importance of the speedy 

 domestication of tropical plants in southern Flori- 

 da, with the single exception of the actual, en- 

 Jightened Secretary of War. 



Very respectfully, 



Your obedient servant, 



Henry Perrine. 

 Indian Key, T. F.,22nd Oct., 1839. 



the peculiar calcareous soil of south- 

 ern FLOKIDA, AND ITS EFFECTS ON 

 HEALTH. 



To tlie Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Indian Key, T. F. Oct. 19, 1839. 

 Dear Sir— By the paragraph appended to the 

 meteorological abstract, you will perceive how 

 greatly I am indebted to you for the important ex- 

 planation of the admirable fact of the extreme 

 healthiness of the exclusively calcareous soil of 

 Tropical Florida. Shortly after the reception m 

 May last, of j-our unrivalled ' Essay on Calcareous 

 Manures,' 1 informed you that the first perusal of 

 that invaluable work Jiad opened to me a new 

 world of observation and inquiry," I had never 

 previously reflected on the importance of the ex- 

 traordinary lact, that nearly all South Florida 

 composes one vast bed of the most celebrated 

 mineral manure of the northern and southern 

 states of the union. I had never duly reflected on 

 all the bearings of the important fict that all the 

 calcareous earth of South Florida is the great 

 manuring earth of the whole civilized agricultural 

 world ; and hence, I could not completely appre- 

 ciate your high estimates of the immense value of 

 carbonate of lime, to improve the exhausted soils 

 of the old southern states. But, I can now readi- 

 ly concur in the positions repeated by you, at page 

 511, ol' vour August No., in your remarks en the 

 Agricultural Convention of South Carolina— that 

 thejudicious addition of a little calcareous earth to- 

 their present unproductive soils would increase 

 their productive powers, many-lb.'d in a i'tw years. 

 I perceive that, in Massachusetts, Professor Hitch- 

 cock has discovered and asserted, " Isi, the grand 

 desideratum in our soils, is calcareous matter, that 

 is, carbonate of lime ; 2nd, without lime in some 

 form, land will not produce any valuable vegeta- 

 tion ; 3rd, that the failure of a whole crop may 

 result !i-um the deficiency of one per cent, of some 

 form of lime in one hundred parts of soil." Al- 

 though silex and alumina are the great constitu- 

 ents of this terrestrial globe— although lime does 

 not constitute more than one-eighth or one-tenth 

 part of even the crust of this globe— although si- 

 licious and aluminous earths principally compose 

 the visible earths of its surface— yet, as you have 

 well shown, the smallest proportion of calcareous 

 earth will form the most important constituent of 

 every agricultural soil. Vv'hile silex and alumina 

 may be denominated in common, the simple, ele- 

 mentary, mechanical earths — while silex alone 

 may be called the separative, loosening,uncohering, 

 unabsorbing earth — and wliile alumina alone may- 

 be distinguished by the epithets of the adhering, 

 compacting, absorbing earth — and while, hence 

 we attribute the aericultural properties of these 

 two elementary earths, to their mechanical proper- 

 ties above — we are oblifred to superadd many dis- 

 tinctive epithets to designate the many important 

 properties of calcareous earih — we must call the 

 carbonate of lime, a compound elementary earth, 

 achemico-mechanical earth — a medico-alimenta- 

 ry earth— becaluse the sandy and clayey earths 

 are improved with the calcareous earth, by the 

 combination of mechanical, chemical, medical and 

 alimentary properties in the same natural Ibrm of 

 carbonate of lime. Hence, (Q. E. D.) the slan- 

 dered, arid, rocky, sandy keys of Tropical Flo- 

 rida, are entirely composed of the most valuable 



