6 FLORIDA : ITS CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, 



generally perfectly Leal thy after they have been a few years cleared. 

 Newly-cleared lands are sometimes attended with the development of 

 more or less malaria. In Florida the diseases which result from these 

 clearings are generally of the mildest type (simple intermittent fever) r 

 while in nearly all the Southern States they are most frequently of a 

 severe grade of bilious fever. 



The topographical feature here noted, namely, a general interspersion 

 of rich hammocks, surrounded by high, dry, rolling, healthy pine woods, 

 is an advantage which no other State in the Union enjoys; and Florida 

 forms in this respect a striking contrast with Louisiana, Mississippi, and 

 Texas, whose sugar and cotton lands are generally surrounded by vast 

 alluvial regions, subject to frequent inundations, so that it is impossible 

 to obtain within many miles of them a healthy residence. 



The lands which in Florida are, par excellence, denominated "rich 

 lands," are, first, the u swamps lands 7 '; second, the " low hammock lands' 7 ; 

 third, the "high hammocks"; and fourth, the "first-rate pine, oak, and 

 hickory lands." 



The swamp lands are unquestionably the most durably rich lauds in 

 the country. They are the most recently formed lands, and are still 

 annually receiving additions to their surface. They are intrinsically the 

 most valuable lands in Florida, being as fertile as the hammocks and 

 more durable. They are evidently alluvial and of recent formation,, 

 and occupy natural depressions of basins which have been gradually 

 filled up by deposits of vegetable debris, &c., washed in from the adja- 

 cent and higher lands. Ditching is indispensable to all of them in their 

 preparation for successful cultivation. Properly prepared, however, 

 their inexhaustible fertility sustains a succession of the most exhaust- 

 ing crops with astonishing vigor. The greatest yield of sugar ever 

 realized in Florida was four hogsheads per acre, produced on a planta- 

 tion on Indian River, on which is now located the large orange grove 

 which has given character to the oranges of Florida the Dum mitt- 

 Grove, recently purchased by an Italian nobleman, the Duke de Castel- 

 luccia. Sugar cane is here instanced as a measure of the fertility of 

 the soil, because it is one of the most exhausting crops known, and is 

 generally grown without rest or rotation. It is not, however, a fair 

 criterion by which to judge of the relative fertility of lands situated in 

 different climates, for we find on the richest lands in Louisiana the crop 

 of sugar per acre is not more than one hogshead, or about half that of 

 East Florida. 



This great disparity in the product of those countries is accounted 

 for, not by any inferiority in the lands of Louisiana or Texas, but from 

 the fact that the early incursions of frost in both these States render it 

 necessary to cut the cane in October, which is long before it has reached 

 maturity, while in East Florida it is permitted to stand without fear of 

 frost till December, or till such time as it is fully matured. It is well 



