68 FLORIDA: ITS CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, 



sider that the territory in question covers 1,000 square miles in excess of the combined 

 area of the States of Rhode Island (1,300 square miles), Connecticut (4,700 square 

 miles), New Jersey (8,300 square miles), and Delaware (2,120 square miles). In other 

 words, over 17,000 square miles of the most tropical portion of the most tropical State 

 in the Union are to-day ready to respond to an intelligent, systematic, and properly 

 directed effort towards placing them in the category of tillable and available acres, 

 embracing no barren prairies nor mountain wastes. There are but few acres not sus- 

 ceptible to a high degree of cultivation. Lands which in a more northern climate 

 would be regarded as valueless will hero yield luxuriant and remunerative crops. 

 For example, the scrub palmetto or poorest pine barrens of Southern Florida will pro- 

 duce, without fertilizers, large crops of Sisal hemp, yielding a profit to the acre which 

 compares favorably with the returns from the richest land when cultivated in sugar 

 tobacco, or cotton. The same character of land will produce from 50 to 75 bushels of 

 upland rice to the acre a three months' crop; or at a trifling original outlay, 15,000 

 pineapple slips, set to the acre, will, from the poorest scrub land, yield a return far in 

 excess of the brightest dream of the Northern farmer. Other valuable tropical pro- 

 ducts adapted to these lands could be mentioned, which, in a more northern climate, 

 would yield nothing to agriculture. This glance at the possibilities to be realized 

 from the cultivation of third-rate pine and stunted "Black Jack" lands prepares us 

 somewhat for a better appreciation of the capabilities of the soil designated as " rich 

 lands," and named in the following order : First, "swamplands"; second, "low ham- 

 mock"; third, "high hammock"; and fourth, "first rate pine, oak, and hickory 

 lands." It will only be necessary to call attention to the fact that the "swamp" 

 or lands subject to overflow are intrinsically the most valuable lauds in Florida. To 

 adapt them for successful cultivation a systematic plan for their drainage will be in- 

 dispensable; when thus prepared their inexhaustible fertility sustains a succession of 

 the most exhaustive crops with astonishing vigor. The greatest yield of sugar ever 

 realized in Florida (4 hogsheads per acre) was produced on this description of land. 



It will be impossible to form or convey an adequate idea of the importance and ex- 

 tent of this enterprise, developing, as a consequence, a new and vast territory unlim- 

 ited in resources, and of such material and varied agricultural wealth as can be 

 furnished by no other State in the Union ; opening to cultivation a tract of sugar 

 lands the soil of which is identical to that of Cuba and Louisiana of a productive 

 power apparently inexhaustible and unequaled in area by any country on the globe 

 The prominent natural requisites to the growth and maturity of the sugar cane 

 under the most favorable conditions, obtain here in a marked degree. 



A moderate proximity of these lauds to the sea and gulf, a dry, warm spring, show- 

 ers during the afternoons in June, July, and August, followed by a comparatively dry 

 autumn, a condition necessary for converting the starch into saccharine matter, are 

 characteristics of the peninsula of Florida south of the 28th parallel of latitude. The 

 importance of this one crop as affecting the material wealth of our country can be 

 more readily comprehended by a bare comparison with the enormous output in pre- 

 cious metals from our western mines, those great store-houses of national wealth. The 

 import duties on sugar for manufacturing purposes from the year 1847 to 1879 varied 

 from 2f to 4 cents per pound. We paid out for sugar and allied products during 

 this period $1,800,000,000. Our western mines produced $1,700,000,000, or, in other 

 words, during a period of thirty-two years as a nation we paid out in round numbers 

 $100,000,000 in excess of the total output in bullion of our famed bonanzas of the west 

 for an article of consumption every pound of which could have been produced from 

 the soil of Southern Florida. 



The choice sugar lands of Louisiana are rated at from $100 to $150 per acre, similar 

 in character to those just described, which mature the cane to perfection, and are 

 located below the frost line. 



The terms of the contract with the board of internal improvement of the State of 

 Florida give to this company one-half of all the laud reclaimed l>y the lowering of 

 the waters of Lake Okeechobee. 



