94 HOME LIFE IN FLOELDA. 



These first-class pine lands are elevated, almost with 

 ''high hills" in some localities, but as a rule merely 

 undulating in a degree pleasant to the eye and conduc- 

 ive to health and beauty of landscape. 



The timber is large, tall, and straight, with occasional 

 giant oaks; and in many localities where there is but 

 little, underbrush, and the clear, sparkling waters of the 

 lakes that are thickly scattered through these beautiful 

 pine lands, with their clean, white beaches, peep at one 

 here and there, the scene is full of a quiet, peaceful, 

 home feeling that is inexpressively soothing and restful. 



The greater portion of these superior lands — where they 

 are found in the largest bodies we mean — is in the more 

 northern and western sections, where are found some of 

 the richest and most attractive portions of the State. 



When we consider what has been raised on this first- 

 class pine land (we could give some marvelous figures did 

 our present purpose permit), and that it has been accom- 

 plished by the rather hap-hazard methods of cultivation 

 that are still too much in vogue, and then consider what 

 results thorough cultivation, intensive farming, and deep 

 plowing and fertilizing would bring forth, we become lost 

 in wonder at the possibilities of the despised Florida sands, 

 as represented by her first-class pine lands. 



Frequently clay is found close to the surface, inter- 

 mingled with rich vegetable mud, and these lands are 

 eminently adapted to the growth of almost every thing — 

 oranges, lemons, long and short staple cotton, sugar-cane, 

 corn, potatoes, oats, rye, turnips, vegetables, fruits of all 

 kinds; and in the northern sections, wheat, barley, and 

 some varieties of apples, and every where, also, grasses 

 and cattle ad libitum. 



There is more second-class pine land than first-class. 

 Fully two thirds of all the Florida homes are located on 



