112 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



In those localities where clay or marl crops up near the 

 surface, within two or three feet, peaches grow thriftily, 

 and nearly every where figs, pomegranates, guavas, bana- 

 nas, grapes, and pineapples, flourish exceedingly, the lat- 

 ter needing occasionally a light winter protection. 



Persimmons, plums, grapes, blackberries, huckleberries, 

 grow wild and in great abundance. Cattle and hogs are 

 kept in large numbers, and are very profitable to their 

 owners, though the hogs, as we shall see in future chapters, 

 are a terrible " thorn in the flesh" to the neighborhood in 

 which they range. The cattle, as is too often the case in 

 Florida, are valued less on account of the milk they yield 

 than for the fertilization of the ground in the pens where 

 they are confined during the night, their calves being re- 

 tained as hostages by their owners to insure their coming 

 home toward ^' sun-down." On this subject more hereafter. 



There are only a few flocks of sheep and Angora goats 

 as yet, and they are experimental ; but the enterprise bids 

 fair to prove successful and profitable, therefore it will 

 quickly assume large proportions. 



Of course, cotton and sugar-cane are staple crops ; no 

 where can they be grown in greater perfection ; but still they 

 are not supreme, the citrus is the royal family hereabouts. 



The health of the peoj^le is excellent, whenever they 

 have the good sense to avoid marshy localities, where-, as 

 every body knows, malaria is manufactured from the decay- 

 ing vegetation, not only of Florida, but every where over 

 the world. 



As a general thing, the malaria of Florida marshes is 

 not of a malignant type ; the fever it gives is the regular 

 old-fashioned chill and fever, or else a mild intermittent ; 

 it causes its victim to feel wretched and apathetic, but does 

 not often kill, unless, as sometimes happens, it finds a sister- 

 disease ready to join forces with it. 



