No. 86.J 521 



rents. But while East Florida may compete with Georgia, and 

 States farther north, in the cultivation of silk, and that too with su- 

 perior advantages, she will produce several staples in the cultivation 

 of which they cannot compete with her ; amongst the more impor- 

 tant of which, will be that of sugar ; and now that the din of war has 

 ceased, and the overflowing scourge that has so long devastated this 

 fair portion of Florida has passed by, we may hope soon to see the 

 country settled by an industrious, intelligent and enterprising people. 

 There is no portion of our country (or perhaps of any other,) that af- 

 fords greater inducements to the immigration of that class of people, 

 than East Florida. I have visited almost every portion of the United 

 States, and spent many years in the noble valley of the Mississippi, 

 (which might, wdth propriety, be called the garden of the world,) 

 while the country was thin ; I can say with confidence, that I have 

 seen no country where industry^ enterprise and economy^ usually met 

 with a better reward, than in East Florida. A catalogue of the crops 

 suitable to the soil and climate, and of the spontaneous vegetable pro- 

 ductions, would embrace almost every thing found at the north, with 

 the addition of many others of exceeding value, not found in colder 

 latitudes ; among the last, are the orange, and almost every tropical 

 fruit ; and as to the healthiness of the climate, it is too well estab- 

 lished to need any comment. Some portions of the army, to be sure, 

 suffered much from disease, during the late Indian hostilities ; but I 

 am told that an examination of its statistics will show that it suffered 

 less from that cause, in Florida, in proportion to numbers, than it did 

 on the northern and northwestern frontier, during the last war with 

 England. 



The temperature is a pleasant medium between the extremes of heat 

 and cold. By a register of the weather, kept for two years at Char- 

 lotte Harbor, the mercury never stood, but once, as high as 90°, nor 

 sunk, but once, as low as 50°. Further north, the extremes are some- 

 what greater ; but at St, Augustine, the mercury seldom rises above 

 90°, or falls below 30°. But, to use the language of a writer in a 

 late number of that valuable w^ork. The Journal of the American In- 

 stitute ; " there are other considerations of high import to the enter- 

 prising agriculturist in favor of locating in East Florida. It has been 

 satisfactorily proved, by the late indefatigable and much to be la- 

 mented Doctor Ferine, that almost any article grown between the tro- 

 pics, will flourish as well, and in some cases better, than in their na- 

 tive soil ; and the entire catalogue of spices, and other articles for 

 which we now make long and perilous voyages to the opposite side of 

 the globe, — often to unhealthy climates, and always incurring vast 

 expense, — can be grown in our own territory, and furnished at a 

 cheaper rate, and in better order, than those obtained of the half civil- 

 ized Asiatic Islanders. In addition to all which, cattle, horses and 

 hogs, may be raised, in any numbers, upon our fine grazing lands, 

 with little or no attention from man. Our lakes and rivers abound 

 with fish, of the greatest variety and best quality ; our woodlands with 

 [Senate, No. 85.] Ii 



