102 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



crops ; but wheat, corn, and oats, are less profitable tban 

 in the more northern portions of the State. 



Lakes are few, except in the central portion, where, in 

 the " Santa Fe and Eiistis Lake regions," are a number of 

 very fine sheets of pure, clear water, full of fish, and fre- 

 quently framed by bold, beautiful bluffs. 



Here the large orange groves flourish, and hundreds of 

 new groves are being set out, while settler after settler rolls 

 up his sleeves, and goes to work with a will in the truck- 

 field ; sending on crate after crate, barrel after barrel, of 

 green peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, onions, spinach, 

 egg-plants, celery, lettuce, beets, and the host of other gar- 

 den vegetables to the great Northern and Western markets 

 all through the months of January, February, March, and 

 April. 



It is a business that, as a rule, pays handsomely, though 

 some seasons, owing to "cold snaps " or drought, it fails. It 

 is no uncommon thing to see from five hundred to a thou- 

 sand dollars cleared on one acre of some special crop that 

 has matured and reached its destination at a fortunate 

 moment. 



One of the special crops is the strawberry, and often the 

 profit on these little berries is so fabulous as to be fairly 

 startling. 



And now we come to South Florida, where the semi-trop- 

 ical and truly tropical productions stand side by side ; here 

 heavy frosts seldom come, and when they do come the 

 damage they do is usually light, chiefly affecting tender 

 vegetables. 



Every tree, plant, and shrub of the subtropics is at home 

 here, especially in the southernmost parts ; in the more 

 northern portions some slight winter protection is given to 

 pineapples, bananas, and guavas, a rude shelter of boughs, 

 during two or three winter nights, when the thermometer 



