SOUTHEBN CULTIVATOR. 
371 
spotted tobacco does as well here as in Middle Florida, 
but is too critical for careless farmers ; 1200 lbs. have been 
raised to the acre, but 800 lbs. is a high average ; this 
Lfsed to sell at from 40 cents to 80 cents per lb., but it has 
come down to an average of 20 rents, and much of it is 
not worth shipping. The segar business by planters, or 
by any one, out of Florida tobacco, is worse than px-ofit- 
less. Pindars or ground peas luxuriate in this region, 
and are likely to prove a valuable market crop; average 
about 50 bushels per acre, with a heavy crop of rough 
forage, say four times as much in weight as one acre of 
corn fodder ; best on moderate pine lands. Arrowroot 
does well, but is most profitable dug in the pine woods in 
St. Lucie county, where there is an immense free and 
perpetual plantation of it. All of the vine family flourish 
here; melons, pumpkins, beans, &c. All who try can 
have good gardens almost the whole year round. Tn this 
latitude, about 29^'^, we have, some winters, very severe 
freezes; though south of Tampa there is rarely ever kil- 
ling frost. Oranges, lemons, limes, pomegranates, 
and the more hai-dy tropicals, do finely in this part of 
East Florida, especially on the lakes and streams, where 
the frost is less likely to aflfect them. The insect, as it is 
■called, which is, in my opinion, a mei'e fungus, is easily 
remedied by giving the trees a vigorous gi'owth, with the 
proper use of manure. The orange tree, by budding into 
large trees of the sour kind, will bear sweet oranges in three 
years; as soon as in bearing an acre is considei’ed worth 
Si 000. iMany trees come to bear 2000 oranges, and I am 
told some of the trees at St. Augustine, befoi'e .they were 
killed by the frost, have borne five to six thousand oran- 
ges. The oi*ange orchards of St. Augustine were once hex- 
pride, and the chief source of her support. 
The more tender ti-opicals grow admirably in the region 
south of frost, on Indian river, Miamee, Hillsborough, 
Manatee, Peace Creek. &c. Sufficient trial has been 
made to test the fact. The grape has never been suffi- 
ciently tried to test the suitableness of the climate, soils 
and seasons to its successful growth and profitable culture. 
Some of the more delicate grapes have been tried here in 
gardens, with indifferent success. The native grapes are 
for the most part very acid. A few vines found in the 
Indian old fields that have grown up, bear very palatable 
grapes; acid, of moderately good size. Judging from 
analogy, I would unhesitatingly say, that with Mr. Axt 
thrown in, East and South Florida would prove the great- 
est wine growing and wine producing i-egion this side the 1 
Atlantic. 
Gardening upon the St. John’s axid Indian rivers is des- 
tined soon to become a profitable business, selling to the | 
Atlantic cities. Spring vegetables and melons can be I 
raised here from six lo eight weeks earlier than anywhere i 
else in striking distance of those cities. 
In conclusion, let me add, as a word of caution to all 
who wish to emigrate to new- countries of great promise, 
^‘Jordan is a hard road to travel.” Imagine yourselfload- 
e-i up; wagons, teams, plunder all in, wife, children, ne 
groes, all saying good-bye to old friends and kindred — 
one last look at the comfortable mansion, the neat negro 
quarter, the spacious stables, barns, gin house, smoke- 
house, the nicely paled yard, the old oak tree, the shrub- 
bery, the garden, the orchard, the sparkling spring hard 
by, and the prattling brook that winds its way among the 
meadows and fields where you and your father before you 
have dug out an honest subsistence, and a fortune with 
contentment. Don’t hold in — let the tears flow — they will 
eise the swefiing heart. You can’t stand the upbraidings . 
of the red hill sides'? audit won’t pay to renovate them "I i 
Travel on. It x'ains — night comes on — all wet and wea- 
ry, with no shelter but the tents, the campfiresburn dim- 1 
ly, and many a heart travels back that night to the old j 
mansion. A river crosses your track — it is swollen — the | 
I swanxps for miles are swollen — there is no suspension nor 
I arched bridge — a ci'azy flat that has lain half sunkexi 
I thi-ough the summer, with an unskillful ferryman, is your 
! chance. Wagon and team No. 1 drives in; the flat 
I takes the road through the swamp, and keeps it, except 
j when washed out by the xnad stream that makes a river of 
I every lagoon. But arrived at last on the bank of the 
j main stream, you almost give it up and conclude either 
j to head the stream or wait two or three days for the fresh- 
I et to run down. The river is, perhaps, not more than fifty 
j or sixty yards wide, but, heavens, how the torrent sweeps 
by you ! It makes your head swim to look at it ; but 
you at last conclude it won’t do to be chicken-hearted ; so 
up the stream you tug by the limbs of the trees, and with 
hook and jam, till the ferryman is satisfied he can land at 
the right point on the other side, which he sometimes 
does in safety, and sometimes misses. Wife and children 
bring up the rear with fear and tx-embling, and the most 
sincere pi'ayers ever felt or ixttered. All danger's are not 
death, so imagine yourself rolled up safe and sound at 
your home in the promised land. Wife says, its a love of 
a place, if it was only improved ; but there is no house, 
no field, no garden, no paled yax'd, no shrubbery, nothing 
but land and forests intemiinable. Somebody thinks in a 
new light that night, of the father land, of tlie old place 
and the red hills ; the teai's that were brushed aside on 
leaving, come unbidden back, and the strong man weeps 
till pride comes to his relief; and this is the beginning of 
trouble. 
SuffiQe it to say, Messrs. Editors, it will work the ro- 
mance and moonshine out of the most poetic tempera- 
ment, to settle in a new country with a family. You have 
indicated to the people of the old States what is their true 
policy, and Georgia especially, however well she may 
have paid you, is still lai'gely your debtor. 
With high regard, I am, gentlemen. 
Your obedient servant, 
Lewis C. Gaines. 
IVdaka, Fla., Nov., iSSfl: 
Sugar Crop of Cuba. — A correspondent of the Neia 
Orleans Delta, wi'iting from Matanzas, Cuba, says : 
“There will be a very large deficiency in the sugar crop 
now manufactured in this island. Some say the deficiency 
will amount to 60,000 tons of sugar, but I should hope such 
a statement was a greatly exaggerated one, though there 
doubtless will be a considerable deficiency caused by the 
unfavorable weather just at the commencement of the crop 
and at least in one district — that of Matanzas — by many 
sugar estates having been destroyed by fire.” 
Cure for Heaves in Horses. — The following is said 
to be a certain cure ; 
“To three quarts of sweet milk add a teaspoonful of sul- 
phuric acid, and mix with the horse’s feed. Give at first 
thi’ee times a week, afterwards once or twice, as there 
I may seem occasion, for a week longer.” 
COTTON THRESHEK. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I desire to obtain from 
j you information as to whether successful inventions have 
been made in your State of Thresher or Whipper, for the 
purpose of cleaning the dirt and trash out of seed cotton 
i before applying it to the gin ? This is a desideratum 
^ with us vei'y mnch needed, and I am exceedingly anxi- 
I ous to know with what success they are used in Georgia, 
i and also to avail myself immediately of the advantages re- 
' suiting from their use. Very respectfully, 
J. W. Speight. 
Wacco Village, Texas, (kt., 1856. 
r^°[We do not know of any such machine. Can any 
of our readers give the desired information 7 — Eds.] 
