AND AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES. 4t> 



naturally grow finer and of a quality superior to those gathered in the orchards in 

 Spain. The wild vines serpentine on the ground, or climb up to the tops of trees. 

 Indigo and cochineal were advantageously cultivated there, ami in the year 1777 ] 

 duced a re venue of $200, 000. //TrY 



Chazotte adds, in 1822 : B' 3 R SIT 7 



This country will produce all the tropical fruits and stapl^rhjf/ tJie^sJde of thqs^e-^ 

 longing to a northern climate. 



This fact is now being demonstrated in the experience^Df ITnTYecent 

 population of the State. 



In impressing upon the attention of Congress the advantages of enter- 

 ing upon the cultivation of coffee and cocoa, or the chocolate plant, in 

 connection with vines, olives, capers, and almonds, Chazotte gives the 

 following statement of feasibility and profits of cultivation : 



Coffee. One acre of land planted by ranges, and the plants at 5 feet distant from 

 each other, gives 1,764 plants. A man can take care of two acres, which gives 3,528 : 

 plants. Each plant may, by an average, yield 2 pounds or more, but I reduce it to 1 

 pound; therefore, a man will give yearly 3,528 pounds of coffee, which, at 25 cents,, 

 produces $882. 



It is to be observed that no crop is to be expected on the first and second years ; on 

 the third year the plant yields a good crop ; on the fourth an abundant one, which it 

 will continue to yield every year until the ground is exhausted and the plant dies.. 

 For the two first years of the planting, all kinds of vegetables and corn may be 

 planted between the ranges; they will yield two crops in one year. Cotton is not to 

 be planted between the ranges. 



Cocoa. Four acres of land planted in rows, and the trees at 10 feet distant from 

 each other, give 1,764 trees. A man is capable of taking care of them and of gather- 

 ing the nut, At seven years of age each tree will yield two pounds, and the quantity 

 will increase with its age ; therefore, a man will gather 3,528 pounds of cocoa, which,, 

 at 15 cents per pound, will produce $529.20. 



This cultivation, differing from all others, requires some illustration. It was for- 

 merly thought that its culture required much labor and a virgin soil ; but experience 

 has shown that it grows on land half exhausted by the coffee-plant, and in less than 

 twelve years' time acquires such power as to destroy the coffee underneath. Hence 

 it is now planted between the ranges of coffee when this last is about seven years of 

 age ; so that when the land would otherwise become a mere waste, requiring a hun- 

 dred years for forests to rise on it again ere it could recover its first fruitfulness, the 

 same land being again covered by a new forest of productive trees, the fruits of which 

 growing and inaturing all the year round, each day brings in its crop. 



The extraordinary effects of the cocoa tree in regenerating the ground upon which 

 it grows may easily be accounted for. This tree seldom attains higher than fifteen 

 feet ; it is brauchy, its leaves very large, and the body, or stock, of a middling size ;. 

 the leaves continually falling off the tree while new ones grow, cover the earth 

 with a thick bed of leaves, which allow not even a blade of grass to grow with them. 

 Hence the ground requires no culture, and the trees but a light pruning when any rav- 

 ages have been caused by storm. This constant thick bed of leaves returns to the 

 earth five times more nutriment than the diminutive size of the tree requires from it, 

 and in less than thirty years brings the soil back to its original fertile state. 



Having given the proceeds of a man's yearly labor in the plantation of coffee and 

 cocoa, I shall now quit Florida and enter the territory of the United States. 



Vines. An acre of land planted with vines, allowing 41 ranges at 5 feet distant, and 

 to each range 104 vines at 2 feet apart, gives 4,264 vines to an acre. Five acres for a 

 man's labor give 21,320 vines; and allowing the grapes of 10 vines to yield 1 gallon of" 



