468 Transactions of the American Institute. 



hinman's car and track for removing hay in barns. 



Mr. Homer W. Fitch, Lithgow, N. Y., exhibited a machine for 

 unloading and mowing away hay, which appeared to possess seve- 

 ral meritorious points, and was decided to be an excellent and 

 almost indispensable assistant to the farmer. Adjourned. 



March 3, 1868. 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the chair; Mr. John vV. Chambebs, Secretary. 



FLORIDA. 



Mr. Solon Robinson, Jacksonville, Fla. — We have some frost 

 here; ice has been seen twice. As I write, people are working 

 their gardens. Forty miles south, on the coast, tomatoes have been 

 growing all winter. The soil in this place is sandy, but largely 

 composed of powdered shells, giving the Avhole the appearance of 

 buckAvheat flour. Timber of all kinds grows luxuriantly, showing 

 that the soil is rich. The growth of orange, fig, peach and various 

 other trees is rapid. Weeds grow ten feet high upon the walls of 

 earthworks, the dirt of which was taken from ditches ten feet deep. 

 A crop of these weeds plowed under makes the ground sufficiently 

 rich for sugar-cane. Sugar is to be the main crop of the State. I 

 believe the time will come when vegetables and fruits will be 

 grown along the St. Johns for the New York market, and they will 

 be fully two months earlier than the products of New Jersey. The 

 whole country is emerging from a wilderness. Laud is worth from 

 fifty cents to fifty dollars an acre — the first is swamp, yet fre- 

 quently as dry as any other. The Florida railroad give away lots 

 to actual settlers. 



The dearest lands are orange groves, the trees of which are worth 

 from fifty dollars to one hundred dollars each. Commercial open- 

 ings ofi'er, such as buying up the old Spanish land grants and selling 

 them again in small pieces, and also in manufacturing, loaning 

 money, or engaging in the insurance business. Cotton planting has 

 failed. Laborers are abundant. The climate on the whole is 

 healthier than at the North. Still, one is subject to fever and 

 ague, &c. 



Though the heat is of long duration, it is not so intense as in New 

 York, The blacks are peaceable, though they pilfer some, as all 



