106 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



four of the common breed, and eats only one fourth as much. 

 And now the dainty little Guinea cow is rapidly becoming 

 a favorite. Success to the pioneer dairymen of Florida ! 

 More on this subject later on. 



Another new enterprise is the drying and shipping of 

 blackberries. This fruit is indigenous to the South, and 

 in Florida we find it every where, by the roadside, in old 

 and new fields, in the hammocks, in the piney woods — fine, 

 large, plump berries, tempting and delicious. 



Years asfo North Carolina awoke to the wealth scattered 

 broadcast over her wild lauds, and now she sends out from 

 her borders, each year, dried blackberries to the value of 

 $100,000 ! Florida can do the same, ' ' only more so." With 

 a small, inexpensive fruit-drier, and berries bought, as they 

 can be and are in some localities, at two cents a quart (and 

 at this rate the pickers make from seventy-five cents to one 

 dollar a day), the profit attained by the shipper is very 

 handsome. 



Then there is another business looming up for the upper 

 divisions of Florida, one that has already, in its infancy, 

 assumed immense proportions in California, and is quite as 

 well if not better adapted to Florida. We allude to the 

 raising and drying of figs. The fig is a paying fruit wher- 

 ever grown, and nowhere can it be brought to greater per- 

 fection than in our State, wherever a clay or marl subsoil 

 lies within three or four feet of the surface. 



The tree is easily raised from cuttings, is a rapid grower, 

 once started ; it requires no pruning, fruits at an early age, 

 and is a prolific bearer ; it is not subject to blight or disease, 

 and the process of drying the fruit for market is not a dif- 

 ficult one. The same fruit-drier that is used for blackber- 

 ries, peaches, huckleberries, will answer the same purpose 

 for figs also. 



We have no fears of proving a false prophet in predict- 



