''where shall I SETTLE?" 103 



threatens to fall below 36°. This may be necessary once 

 or twice in several successive years, or it may not be need- 

 ed at all in several seasons ; of course, the further south 

 one goes the more can yearly tender fruits be depended 

 on. Key West, and thereabouts, is the home of the pine- 

 apple, banana, cocoanut, bread-fruit, sugar apple, and the 

 host of more tropical fruits, but it is not the home of the 

 orange, or lemon, or cane, or cotton. 



Even from this cursory review of the different divisions 

 of Florida, you can readily see that never was a greater 

 mistake made than to suppose, as so many do, that all parts 

 of the State are alike in soil, climate, and production. 



Why is it that Norfolk, Virginia, vegetables and straw- 

 berries find their way to the markets of New York and 

 Philadelphia several weeks earlier than they can be supplied 

 from their own vicinity ? 



Simply because Norfolk is several hundred miles south 

 of New York and Philadelphia ; for the same reason Char- 

 leston beats Norfolk, and Florida leads them both. 



Look at New Jersey : at Cape May spring is two weeks 

 earlier than it is at Orange, only one hundred miles distant. 

 In New York snow and ice are on the ground in St. Law- 

 rence while the trees are blooming in Queen's County, and 

 when the fields are green at Chappaqua, Ogdensburg, two 

 hundred and fifty miles aAvay, is shivering with a foot or 

 two of snow on the ground. 



Now, Florida is nearly four hundred miles long from its 

 southwestern-most point to its northern or Georgia bound- 

 ary line ; and who, after giving the subject even a passing 

 thought, can not see the absurdity of the idea that her sea- 

 sons, temperature, and productions, are alike over all her 

 length and breadth ? In fact, they are widely diverse, as 

 we have already seen. 



It is often charged against our State papers that they 



