"what will it cost?" 123 



healthful, balmy fragrance, and the sparkle of small, clear 

 water lakes or lakelets gleaming like mirrors through the 

 pines. 



Undoubtedly, hammock lands are the richer lands at the 

 start, but their fertility is of a deceptive sort ; that is, as 

 we have already intimated, it is not lasting. 



Trees and vegetables grow finely for several years, but 

 after that every year increases the need of fertilizing ham- 

 mock land, while with pine lands it is just the reverse ; 

 they are poorer at the outset, but improve steadily with 

 each year's cultivation. 



Then, too, as we have also said before, hammock land is 

 much more expensive than the pine ; where the latter can 

 be had of the best quality, for from ten to twenty dollars 

 an acre, the former is held at fifty to seventy-five or even 

 several hundred dollars. 



The expense of clearing the land preparatory to cultiva- 

 tion must also be taken into account. 



The hammock is full of underbrush, young trees, vines, 

 roots, and palmetto ; all these must not only be cut down, 

 and either burned or piled up to decay, and furnish by and 

 by nourishing food for the future grove, but the number- 

 less roots must be grubbed up at no slight expenditure of 

 time or money ; time, if the settler is a strong man, able 

 and willing to work ; money, if he has to hire the clearing 

 done for him. 



It does not cost less than thirty dollars, oftener fifty, to 

 clear an acre of hammock land, as it should be cleared ; 

 and for a year or two afterward the fight against the up- 

 springing roots must be waged unceasingly or else the clear- 

 ing will go back to its original state, and all the toil and 

 money already expended be thrown away. 



In clearing a piece of hammock for a grove, it is only 

 the underbrush that should be got rid of entirely ; some 



