*' WHERE SHALL I SETTLE?" 113 



Turning to the westward from Leesburg, we pass at once 

 to the gentle, rolling country that is the characteristic type 

 of the ujDper portions of South Florida. It is a piney- 

 woods country, with a top soil of sand and a subsoil of red 

 or white clay, marl, or shell-lime, "sometimes cropping to 

 the surface, at others two to ten feet below it. 



Numerous small lakes break the monotony of the tall 

 trees and green wire-grass that stretch for miles upon miles 

 in all directions ; these vary in size from a half acre to sev- 

 eral hundred acres ; nor is the extent of each lakelet always 

 the same, but variable, according as the wet or dry season 

 is paramount ; their base is clear, pure sand ; no marsh, 

 no miasma here, no stagnant water, like our ponds of the 

 North, with their muddy, slimy shores ; and well is it that 

 this is so, for scarcely can a piece of land containing twen- 

 ty acres, be found in many localities, and most healthy 

 ones too, without one or more of these little lakelets nest- 

 ling in its midst, shimmering in the sunshine like a mirror 

 set in a green frame. 



Besides the various members of the citrus family, guavas, 

 bananas, and pineapples grow here in great luxuriance, 

 although they are occasionally "chilled in their ardor" by a 

 winter frost ; but a wrapping of moss will usually protect the 

 banana if need be ; the guava, even if it drops its leaves, 

 soon starts out again, and a handful of moss dropped over 

 the pineapple will insure its safety. This fruit is an ex- 

 tremely profitable one, a yield of four or five hundred dol- 

 lars per acre being nothing uncommon, when the soil is 

 rich and cultivation good. 



Guavas are also very profitable, and will become a staple 

 all over Florida, now that two species of this valuable fruit 

 have been introduced that are frost-proof, as well as supe- 

 rior for jelly to the common sorts ; these are the Cattley 

 and Chinese guavas. 



8 



