AND AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES. 29 



with clay subsoil, of about the same extent. Along the eastern and 

 southern boundaries water communication with the Gulf of Mexico is 

 furnished by the Choctawhatchie River and Bay, both navigable for 

 steamboats, while the interior is watered by numerous creeks and runs, 

 some finding their way into the Choctawhatchie, and others passing west 

 into Pensacola Bay. The Jacksonville and Pensacola Eailroad will cross 

 this county. 



CENTRAL FLORIDA. 



This division is made up of the territory lying between the parallels 

 of 28 and 30 N. latitude, and is composed of the counties of La Fayette, 

 Alachua, Levy, Marion, Putnam, Yolusia, Orange, Sumter, Hernando, 

 and the southern portion of Taylor, Clay, and Saint John's Counties. 



The surface of this division is less broken, and, as a whole, more level 

 than Northern Florida. It has more of savanna and marsh, and is boun- 

 tifully supplied with water, having the Stinhatchie, Suwannee, Santa 

 Fe, Withlacoochee, Crystal,' Hillsborough, Acklawaha, and Saint John's 

 Kivers, and is profusely studded with ponds, lakes, and smaller streams. 

 The climate is very perceptibly milder, not only from its more southern 

 geographical position, but the narrowness of the peninsula here, giving 

 an average breadth between the ocean and the Gulf of only about ninety 

 miles, exposes it to the daily sweep of the winds from either side, and 

 by this means the extremes of both heat and cold are very essentially 

 modified and ameliorated. The exposure to daily winds from each side 

 increases, also, the rain supply, so that this division has more frequent 

 and abundant rains, and suffers less from drought, than the northern 

 division. 



The soils of Central Florida are similar to those of Northern Florida, 

 with a large proportion of hammock and savanna, and are perhaps of 

 better quality, as a whole. Levy, Hernando, Alachua, Marion, and 

 Sumter Counties, taken together, form a body of land that for produc- 

 tive capacity is not excelled by any similar body in the United States. 



The staple crops are similar to those of Northern Florida, but the 

 peculiar adaptability of this division to the cultivation of the sugar 

 cane and all semi-tropical fruits has caused cane to advance rapidly 

 of late in the estimation of farmers, and within a few years it will prob- 

 ably become the leading agricultural production. The sugar cane in 

 this division ratoons for six or eight years in succession without pro- 

 tection, and often attains a height of from 10 to 15 feet, even when grown 

 for a number of years on the same land without manure. 



Particular attention is asked to the statistical return of crops in Her- 

 nando County, which is appended, and which, with other facts given, 

 fully sustains the assertion that Central Florida is the best cane region 

 in the United States, and probably in the world. 



The entire division is the natural habitat of the whole citron tribe ; 

 numerous groves of the wild orange have been found and still occasion- 

 ally appear, and, as would naturally be anticipated, the orange, lemon, 



