88 FLORIDA: ITS CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, 



tern of canals connecting the lower Saint John's with North Halifax and 

 Indian Kivers, and the Upper Saint John's with the Kissimmee, Lake 

 Okeeehobee, and Caloosahatchee, when all completed, will give Florida 

 the most complete system of internal communication of any Southern 

 State, and render her one of the wealthiest and most desirable for resi- 

 dence and cultivation. 



FISHERIES. 



The extent and wealth of the fisheries of Florida are, beyond compari- 

 son, greater than any other State of the Union. Her twelve hundred 

 miles of sea-coast from Fernandina to Key West, and round to Cedar 

 Keys and Pensacola, with the extensive bays and harbors, abound in 

 turtle, oysters, and sponge, while the waters teem with fish in the 

 greatest variety. 



It has been remarked by an experienced observer that a fee-simple to 

 three miles wide of her coast line of waters was more valuable than the 

 same amount of land adjacent. The annual exportation of oysters, fish, 

 and sponge amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hundreds of 

 families in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama annually resort to the sea- 

 coast and gather a supply of fish, with which they return home. 



State legislation has, as yet, furnished no adequate protection for these 

 fisheries, and they are annually used by fishermen from other States^ 

 " without money and without price," and the State derives no revenue. 



The inland waters, too the rivers, creeks, innumerable lakes and 

 ponds all abound in the varieties of fresh-water fish, which are gath- 

 ered without let or hiuderance for food and enriching the soil, while the 

 supply seems inexhaustible. With proper care and protection against 

 waste and destruction, the supply would last for generations before it 

 became necessary to resort to artificial cultivation. 



STOCK GROWING. 



Cattle raising has long been one of the most lucrative branches of 

 business in Florida. In large portions of the State, notably in the south- 

 ern, the growing of crops has been neglected for the all-absorbing busi- 

 ness of cattle raising, which is attended with no expense, save the per- 

 sonal supervision of the herds, and in gathering the stock for marking 

 and for market. The cattle range on the public domain through the 

 year, and the plains, savannas, and swamps of South Florida have 

 afforded pasturage for innumerable herds, from which, during the civil 

 war, the Southern army drew large supplies, and from which the mar- 

 kets of Key West and Cuba derive their present supply. It is not un- 

 common to find men owning thousands of head of cattle without the 

 proprietorship of lands, and many of the herdsmen count their stock 

 by tens of thousands. The profits are fabulous, as the cost o keeping 

 the cattle is only the expenditure for herding and marking, no food being 

 required other than the natural supply. The annual burning of the 



