516 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



seem to have any special or conclusive definition. 

 I have heard it, by good farmers long resident in 

 Florida, applied as well to high and dry lands as 

 by others, to most aquatic soils. I may probably 

 convey a sufficiently correct conception of its ge- 

 neral application, in saying — that any rich arable 

 soil covered with a dense, mixed, native forest and 

 strong undergrowth, is so termed; seemingly in 

 contradistinction to the open oak and hickory and 

 pine lands. The species ot "hammock" is taken 

 either from its color of soil, as the "gray ham- 

 mock," or from the prevailing growth — as the 

 "dogwood hammock." 



This long enunciation of soils exhibits in itself 

 a great hypothetical cause of the early settlement, 

 and increased prosperity of the middle district. 

 The emigrant, whether desirous of cultivating cot- 

 ton, rice, tobacco, or grain, or of breeding cattle, 

 at once found before him, the land best suited to 

 his wants — and all equa'ly alluring in verdant pas- 

 turage, fertile forests and well furnished springs! 

 The good lands are consequently mostly all "en- 

 tered:" though large tracts are held still by indi- 

 viduals in the market, and at rates cheaper tham 

 any other land, of similar quality, in the southern 

 country. They can be bought at from $10 to $12 

 per acre, and are in no ways inferior to lands now 

 selling in Alabama at $25! Fifteen hundred lbs. raw 

 cotton can easily be harvested from each acre by 

 an industrious farmer; and the country affords the 

 most intelligent society, with every wished tor 

 banking and moneyed facility. Fifteen acres of 

 land for every effective laborer, is the usual pitch 

 of our crop — that is, ten acres of cotton, and five 

 of corn, besides grain, potatoes, &c. Some thri- 

 ving planters exceed this. The cotton crop 

 has never failed in Florida; and in many instances 

 have planters made more than they could save. 

 The crop of the present year will, notwithstand- 

 ing the early and unprecedented li'ost, nearly 

 double that of 1834. Most of our planters are 

 reaping unusual returns; and as it is only by indi- 

 vidual success that I can convince those abroad 

 of our well doing, I trust the following gentlemen 

 will pardon the publicity I give their names. 



It will hardly be accredited in your state, Mr. 

 Editor, that a planter working only forty ser- 

 vants, can make and house in one crop 450,000 

 lbs. of fine staple upland cotton, besides 3,000 

 bushels of corn, and some 20 barrels of sugar and 

 syrup — leaving his crop of oats, rice and potatoes 

 untold! — and yet this is dona in middle Florida; 

 and to prevent incredulity, I may now (first ask- 

 ing his leave for its publication) state, that the for- 

 tunate planter is my respected neighbor, Daniel 

 Bird, Esq. of Jefferson county. The other gen- 

 tleman referred to, is Col. Robert Gamble, former- 

 ly of Virginia, who will this year realize from 65 

 acres of land, which have been for the last six 

 years under continued cultivation of sugar cane, 

 (the most exhausting of crops,) upwards of se- 

 venty bags of cotton. It is these facts which, in 

 showing what is realized, exhibit the strength and 

 richness of our fertile lands. I do not write to 

 mislead, by exaggeration — for I am open to imme- 

 diate correction; but I feel that the lands of 

 Florida have not been justly estimated above. 

 Let us, however, take the minimum of crops on 

 our good and bad soils; this never is less than 

 600 lbs. of cotton per acre; and when with this, it 

 is remembered, that we raise a sufficiency of sugar 



and syrup, of rice and tobacco, for our own con- 

 sumption, and oftentimes for sale; with grain and 

 cattle in superabundance, will it be doubted, that 

 the soils and improved advantages of the middle 

 district, are the producing causes of her sectional 

 prosperity? 



The rumored unhealthiness of the climate, has 

 perhaps, injured the otherwise fair fame of Flor- 

 ida. If so, it is calumniated. The health of the 

 country districts, for a tropical climate, is not bad. 

 Persons can scarcely expect Norwegian robust- 

 ness beneath the vertical rays of the sun ! Talla- 

 hassee, as a city, is undoubtedly sickly during the 

 autumnal months; but even her mortality, appears 

 more alarming to the stranger, than it in reality 

 is — from the regretted fact, that her obituary is 

 mostly made up of northern residents, unac- 

 climated, and who, in their mercantile avocations, 

 imprudently remain upon their first arrival, an au- 

 tumnal sojourn. Their death, widely reported as 

 "died in Florida," appal the emigrant ignorant of 

 circumstances, and wrongly calumniate the health 

 of the whole territory, from the casualties of an 

 ill regulated city ! The evidence of the general 

 salubrity of the climate, is to be found in the rapid 

 increase by births of the mass of our population, 

 and of negroes; and I will venture to assert, that in 

 three plantations out. of every five, in the middle 

 district, the gangs will be found to have increased 

 by births, during the last six years, at the rate of 

 eight to ten per cent, per annum ! 



1 have been better than two years in Florida, 

 and having now concluded the observations, my 

 travel in the territory has permitted me to make 

 upon the general character of the soils, I shall in 

 my next, submit for your approval, the details of 

 trials which I have made both in sugar and cotton 

 cultivation — the egotism of which I hope will 

 be overlooked, in the consideration, that I only de- 

 sire that the comparative results of those two im- 

 portant crops may practically exhibit to others, 

 not only the advantages of both, but also enable 

 them to decide which can be made in middle Flor- 

 ida the most profitable. 



FARQ. MACRAE. 



CALCAREOUS ROCKS IN MECKLENBURG, 

 PRINCE EDWARD, AND CHESTERFIELD, 

 AND GYPSUM IN CUMBERLAND. 



[The following letter was drawn forth by our in- 

 quiries respecting specimens of a singular kind of 

 calcareous rock which we had received from Dr. 

 Morton, and had lately examined, for the purpose 

 of ascertaining the amount of their calcareous ingre- 

 dients. The specimen from Finneywood, Mecklen- 

 burg, contained 72 per cent, of carbonate of lime — 

 that from Mr. Branch's farm, in Prince Edward, 65 — 

 and one from the land of George Johnson, Esq., Ches- 

 terfield, 76 per cent. The latter was obtained from 

 rocks thrown out by freshets, from the bottom of Win- 

 terpock creek, a stream which enters the Appomattox 

 about twenty miles above the falls. All these speci- 

 mens agreed precisely in appearance. The rock was 

 hard, and seemed to have been formed of a mass of 

 small sea shells, mingled with silicious earth. The 

 impressions of the shells were perfect, but all hollow, 



