16 FLORIDA : ITS CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, 



health is seldom met with. And if we have a climate in which these conditions rarely 

 occur, are we not justified in concluding that it will exert a powerful influence in re 

 storing the invalid to health? I have, at various times, visited many portions of the 

 State, and have been surprised to meet so many persons who have settled in it as in- 

 valids and have been restored to health or comparative comfort by the climate a 

 large proportion of them having been sufferers from pulmonary diseases. And what 

 surprised me most, was the fact that none of their offspring manifested any constitu- 

 tional predisposition to pulmonary disease. 



GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY. ' 



Florida is usually described as composed of East Florida, or that por- 

 tion of the State between the Atlantic and the Suwannee River, com- 

 prising the whole of the peninsula; Middle Florida, extending from the 

 Suwannee to the Apalachicola; and West Florida, comprising the ter- 

 ritory west of the last-named river. This division, suggested probably 

 by the existence of the distinctly-marked natural boundaries furnished 

 by the rivers named, may Ije well enough for the purposes of a general 

 description, but a different division suggests itself as better adapted to 

 the purpose of an agricultural description of different sections, whose 

 characteristic productions would be determined in the main by their 

 special climatic conditions. Accordingly, in attempting to give that 

 sort of practical information that would be serviceable to actual settlers, 

 and best enable them to make satisfactory locations, a different mode 

 of territorial division will be adopted, and for the purpose of properly 

 grouping the counties with special reference to those climatic conditions 

 which control and determine their vegetable productions, the State will 

 be included in the three divisions of Northern, Central, and Southern 

 Florida. 



Northern Florida will be considered as constituted from all the lauds 

 lying north of the parallel of 30 north latitude ; the territory included 

 between the parallels of 28 and 30 north latitude will be styled Cen- 

 tral Florida; and all south of 28 will be considered as composing South 

 Florida. 



Thus apportioned, a general account of each division will be given, 

 accompanied by such local descriptions of the different counties as will 

 convey a definite idea of the topography and characteristics peculiar to 

 each. . 



NORTHERN FLORIDA. 



This division extends from the Atlantic Ocean on the east, to Per- 

 dido River on the west, a distance of 375 miles, and has an average 

 breadth of some 45 miles, and is composed of the counties of Escambia, 

 Santa Rosa, Walton, Washington, Holmes, Jackson, Calhoun, Frank- 

 lin, Gadsden, Liberty, Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, Ham- 

 ilton, Suwanuee, Columbia, Baker, Bradford, Nassau, Duval, Clay, and 

 the northern part of Saint John's County. 



The climate of this section as a whole may be said to be mild, verg- 

 ing upon warm. All extremes of temperature are essentially modified 



