AND AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES. 7 



known that it "tassels" in East Florida, and it never does so in either 

 Louisiana or Texas. When cane f< tassels" it is evidence of its having 

 reached full maturity. 



In consequence of the heavy outlay of capital required in the prepa- 

 ration of this description of laud for cultivation, and from the facility of 

 obtaining hammock land, which requires no ditching or draining, swamp 

 lands have been but little sought after by persons engaged in planting 

 in Florida, and there is now at least a million of acres of the best de- 

 scription of this land vacant in the country, which can be secured at 

 less than two dollars per acre. 



Low hammocks, from the fact of their partaking of the nature of 

 hammocks and swamps, and sometimes termed " swammock," are not in- 

 ferior to swamp lands in fertility, but perhaps are not quite as durable. 

 They are nearly always level, and have a soil of greater tenacity than 

 that of the high hammocks. Some ditching is necessary in many of 

 them. The soil is always deep. They are also extremely well adapted 

 to the growth of the cane, as has been well attested by the many plan- 

 tations which were formerly in operation here on this description of laud. 

 There is not so large a proportion of low hammock as there is of swamp 

 lands. 



High hammocks are the lands in the greatest repute in Florida. These 

 differ from low hammocks, in occupying higher ground, and in generally 

 presenting an undulating surface. They are formed of a fine vegetable 

 mold, mixed with a sandy loam, in many places two feet deep, and 

 Cresting in most cases on a substratum of clay, marl, or limestone. It 

 will be readily understood by any one at all acquainted with agriculture, 

 that such a soil, in such a climate as Florida, must be extremely pro- 

 ductive. This soil scarcely ever suffers from too much wet, nor does 

 drought affect it in the same degree as other lands. High hammock 

 lands produce, with but little labor or cultivation, all the crops of the 

 country in abundance. Such lands have no tendency to break up in 

 heavy masses, nor are they infested with pernicious weeds or grasses. 

 Their extraordinary fertility and productiveness may be estimated by 

 the fact that in several well-known instances in Marion County three 

 hogsheads of sugar have been made per acre on this description of land, 

 after it had been in cultivation six years in successive crops of corn, 

 without the aid of manure. 



To sum up its advantages, it requires no other preparation than clear- 

 ing and plowing to fit it at once for the greatest possible production of 

 any kind of crop adapted to the climate. In unfavorable seasons it is 

 much more certain to produce a good crop than other kinds of land, from 

 the fact that it is less affected by exclusively dry or wet weather. It 

 can be cultivated with much less labor than any other lands, being re- 

 markably mellow, and its vicinity is generally high and healthy. These 

 reasons are sufficient to entitle it to the estimation in which it is held 



