THE CULTIVATOR. 
123 
than one foot, immense tracts of them would be 
fully and permanently drained. Though these re¬ 
sults are as yet uncertain, they are sufficiently pro¬ 
bable to command the attention of the public, and 
to justify the consideration here given to them. 
The hammocks are clusters of dense wood land of 
live oak, mastic, wild fig, dogwood, gum elerni, 
cabbage palm, and various other kinds, with an un¬ 
dergrowth so thick as to be almost impenetrable. 
They lie generally on the borders of streams or 
fresh water springs, to whose enriching moisture 
they perhaps owe their existence. The soil con¬ 
tains an abundance of vegetable matter, and in some 
places, a suitable mixture of clay, sand, and lime 
to constitute a rich loam. More often, however, 
it is merely sand and vegetable mould, which, of 
course, by constant and careless cropping, soon 
loses its richness. It produces abundantly all 
kinds of garden vegetables, which are about all the 
inhabitants have yet attempted to raise. On these 
lands also abound the red mulberry, and an indi¬ 
genous species of the grape, which is said to be 
very good, as well as various other kinds of wild 
fruit of but little value. 
Such being the character of the soil, the reader 
will naturally ask,—what are the inhabitants of such 
a country to do for a living ? I proceed to answer. 
1st. The manufacture of ihe Florida arrowroot 
has been, and always will be, a profitable business for 
the residents at the cape. It grows abundantly and 
spontaneously upon the very poorest of the sandy pine 
lands. Indeedit is so very unassuming and modest 
that it will not grow well upon any other; but it seeks 
and thrives best in the purest white sand where no¬ 
thing else will grow. Neither does it ask any favors 
of man for its planting or cultivation, but freely in¬ 
vites him to the harvest after it has planted and raised 
itself. The seed which is unavoidably scattered by 
the process of gathering the roots, produces a new 
crop, better and more plentiful than the first. This 
improvement is probably the result of the cultivation 
effected by pulling the roots. It is manufactured 
with very little trouble. Many families are accus¬ 
tomed to grate it upon a tin grater, and prepare it 
in the same manner as potato starch is made ; and 
thus they realize a decent profit. At the commence¬ 
ment of the war there were two mills in the vicini¬ 
ty of the cape, each propelled by a single horse. 
By the aid of such mills, I am informed by those 
who have followed the business, that five men with 
a horse and cart, can dig, gather, manufacture, 
make the boxes, and pack ready for sale, four hun¬ 
dred pounds of arrowroot per day. The price of the 
article is yet unsettled. It has varied at wholesale 
in this market from six to sixteen cents ; and it is 
the opinion of our most intelligent men that the de¬ 
mand for it will increase, as its value becomes more 
generally known. Now, after making liberal al¬ 
lowances for the price it will permanently have, 
and the expense of manufacturing it, there can be 
no question that it will afford a handsome profit to 
all who may turn their attention to this branch of 
business. If then the white sands of Cape Florida 
will spontaneously produce valuable crops, why are 
they inferior to the rich wheat lands of the north, on 
which man is doomed to earn his bread by the sweat 
of his brow at incessant toil ? and why are the for¬ 
mer called poor, and the latter rich ? The proof of 
a soil is not in the name but in the produce. 
2d. There is much reason to believe that the ma¬ 
king of silk, may become a good business in South 
Florida. The native mulberry abounds in the ham¬ 
mocks, and will grow well in the pine lands. The 
white and the Chinese mulberry have both been 
introduced here, and have found a genial soil. 
And as we have no frost to destroy vegetation, the 
silk culturist may follow his business during the 
whole or nearly the whole year. It is true that this 
is yet an untried business with us ; but it would 
seem that if it can be made profitable at the north, 
with only one brood of worms in a year, it may be¬ 
come more so here, even with very liberal allowan¬ 
ces for unforeseen difficulties. I am not aware that 
any method has yet been discovered, to obviate the 
supposed necessity of keeping the eggs through a 
northern winter before they can be hatched. But 
while I confess my ignorance on this point, I can¬ 
not believe that such a practice is necessary. It is 
unreasonable to suppose that eggs of worms raised 
where there is no winter, will not hatch in due 
course of time. It must be that a few well directed 
experiments, in this climate, will disclose some 
mode of keeping up a constant and immediate suc¬ 
cession of broods of the silk worm, sufficiently re¬ 
gular and perfect, to render the silk business much 
more profitable here than at the north. Mr. Charles 
Howe, of Indian Key has made a few cocoons, 
from northern eggs, which are said to have been of 
a good quality. He found no difficulty in keeping 
the eggs from hatching during the summer as long 
as he pleased, or in hatching them whenever he 
chose to expose them for that purpose. But on one 
occasion he exposed fresh laid eggs, as he had been 
accustomed to do his old ones, and they did not 
hatch; and whether he pursued the experiment I 
am not informed. If, however, the silk worm can 
propagate its species in this climate, which cannot 
be doubted; and if we can prevent its eggs from 
hatching as long as we please—and experiment has 
proved that we can—we are very near to the wished 
for discovery, if it has not already been made ; and 
we may calculate with confidence upon the silk bu¬ 
siness becoming a profitable employment in this 
country. 
3d. The raising of tropical fruits must in a few 
years become another profitable branch of business 
here ; and we shall be under no apprehension of 
disasters from frosts, which have proved so fatal to 
the orange trees at and about St. Augustine. Nei¬ 
ther can we fear that this branch of business will 
ever be overdone in Florida, when we consider 
the limited extent of territory in which it can be 
followed, and the numerous markets which the 
northern states afford. While man has an appetite 
for the good things of this world, the inviting fruits 
of the south will always be in demand, and will ne¬ 
cessarily command a price sufficient to insure their 
production and their transportation to market.— 
Some little time will be necessary to raise the trees; 
but when this is done, a certain and easily earned 
income is the inevitable result. 
4th. A new branch of American agriculture or 
manufacture is about to be tried at Cape Florida by 
Doctor Perrine, late American consul at Campea- 
chy in Mexico. He is sanguine in the belief that 
the culture of Sisal Hemp, will soon become not 
only a source of profit to individuals engaged in it, 
but also of great importance in a national point of 
view, in supplying a superior article of cordage of 
every kind and size for our shipping ; a cheap, 
and strong material for the manufacture of every 
quality of cloths from the finest linen to the coarsest 
cotton bagging. The doctor is well acquainted 
with this subject, and has spent several years in 
preliminary preparations for commencing this bu¬ 
siness ; and people of intelligence to whom he has 
exhibited specimens of the article—the mode of ma¬ 
nufacturing it—and the nature of the plant from 
which it is obtained, are strongly impressed with 
the belief that he must inevitably succeed in this 
great undertaking. 
The worst description of land in South Florida— 
that which is even inferior to the white sand which 
the arrowroot lays indisputable claim to—is the 
very soil in which this hemp plant, or properly 
speaking, the agave, best thrives. Indeed this soil 
to which it is natural, cannot properly be termed 
soil at all, for it is little else than stone. This spe¬ 
cies of rocky land is abundant in this section, par¬ 
ticularly on the thousand islands that everywhere 
surround us, and the extreme limits of the main 
land. Should this branch of business be found pro¬ 
fitable, our Florida archipelago, long the dreaded 
hold of piracy, and now wild and waste, will soon 
swarm with a useful and industrious population, and 
become a paradise indeed. 
For the purpose of aiding the doctor and his 
friends in this undertaking, in connection with cul¬ 
ture, and acclimation of tropical plants in general, 
the legislature of Florida, last winter, incorporated 
a company with a capital of $50,Q00, entitled the 
Tropical Plant Company of Florida. Nothing now 
delays the commencement of operations except the 
Indian war. Indeed the doctor had already grow- 
ing in boxes near Indian Key, several hundred fo¬ 
reign plants ready to be transplanted at any moment. 
Besides these distinct branches of business, a few 
people may profitably engage in the sawing of lum¬ 
ber. For this purpose a gentleman expecting to 
settle at the cape, now contemplates the erection 
of a steam mill there, in case suitable water power 
cannot be found. The settlers may readily be sup¬ 
plied with building materials, so indispensable to 
all countries in the progress of improvement. 
Furthermore, there are numberless auxiliary 
means of providing the necessaries of life in this 
country. An abundance of fish, turtle and oysters 
may be had at all times, merely for the trouble of 
taking them. Turtle on this coast supplies the 
place of beef at the north, and it is just as common. 
They are caught, in great numbers and put in en¬ 
closures, and fed on grass ; whence they are taken 
and killed as occasion requires. Horses, cattle, 
and sheep ask no favors of man whatever ; but give 
them their natural and inalienable right of “life, li¬ 
berty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and they will 
“ multiply and bring forth abundantly in the earth 
and then if man choose, they may be made to sup¬ 
ply his table or his pocket with the needful. He 
need not labor in the heat of the sun to make artifi¬ 
cial pastures for them in summer, and provide a 
mountain of hay for their winter store ; nor need he 
brave the piercing cold, for eight long months, m 
dealing out to them the treasured produce of his 
summer toil. No—nature obviates this necessity 
in tropical Florida, and freely feeds upon her ver¬ 
dant bosom the animals she has given to man. Gar¬ 
den vegetables, too, which ought to constitute the 
principal portion of our food, are raised with sur¬ 
prising little labor. Peas of an excellent quality, 
grow abundantly on bushes like northern currants, 
and bear continually. They have also a superior 
species of white bean growing upon a vine, which 
though it would be annual at the north, is perpetual 
here. When once planted it is planted forever. A 
man might live comfortably on vegetables alone, 
without devoting to their cultivation more than one 
day in a month. Sweet potatoes alone might furnish 
half his constant food, and still be considered a luxu¬ 
ry. They who have only eaten them at the north, can 
have no idea of their true value in their native clime. 
They will not keep good like Irish potatoes, but 
generally spoil in a short time. When fresh, they 
are often exclusively eaten for an entire meal, though 
the table be well supplied with other kinds of food. 
There is another valuable vegetable now grow¬ 
ing to perfection at the cape, which not only may 
constitute the greater portion of one’s food, but actu¬ 
ally does furnish almost the entire subsistence for 
the negroes on the plantations of Cuba. I mean 
the plantain, of which there are four species. The 
plant itself is extremely beautiful—fifteen to twenty 
feet high—leaves, five to ten feet long and one and 
one-half to two broad—thin, soft and silky in their 
texture, and of a deep, glossy, green colour. The 
banana and one other species, bear only one large 
bunch on a stalk. But it is indeed a large one—as 
much as a half grown boy could well shoulder, and 
weighing often times over sixty pounds. In shape, 
the first resembles the cucumber—about five inches 
in length and one and one-half in diameter; and from 
one hundred to two hundred of these grow in a 
bunch, as closely as they could be packed in a bas¬ 
ket. They are covered with a thin skin, which 
when the fruit is ripe, may be peeled off with the 
fingers as easily as if it were a paper envelop. The 
food is then ready to be eaten from the hand, and 
consists of one solid mucilagenous pulp—mild, easy 
to digest, and inviting in its 11avor. The banana is 
more fruit than food ; but the plantain is more food 
than fruit, and is generally cooked and eaten at 
meals. 
Both species are propagated by planting the suck¬ 
ers that spring up around the parent stock. After 
growing eight or nine months, the flower puts forth, 
and in about three months longer, the fruit is per¬ 
fected. When this is gathered, the stalk is cut down 
to the ground, to make room for the young plants 
which are growing up like a family around a fruit¬ 
ful mother. The first born of these is just putting 
forth its flower when the fruit of the parent, stalk is 
ripe. In this order they proceed continually. But 
as all the stalks do not ripen their fruit, or need not 
be planted, at the same time, a field of plantain and 
bananas need never be without a constant succes¬ 
sion of ripe fruit. 
Under all these facilities for easy living, it strikes 
me that no one need be apprehensive of starving at 
Cape Florida. L. W. SMITH. 
Use of Plaster on Fruit Trees—Canker, &c. 
Liverpool, July 23 d, 1838. 
Jesse Bdel —Sir—Two of my plum trees in my 
garden, five years since, were heavily laden with 
fruit; the two succeeding years they flowered, but 
bore no fruit. Last j^ear and this I dusted ground 
plaster over the tops, while in full bloom ; the effect 
was they fruited well both seasons. 
Black Canker, (I believe you call it,) in plum 
trees .—For about, three years I have been in the 
habit of cutting off the limbs, or that part affected, 
whenever I discover any canker on them: the con¬ 
sequence is my plum trees are green and thrifty, 
while I see many of my neighbors’ trees entirely 
killed by canker. I do not burn the parts cut off, as 
one of your correspondents recommends, but it may 
be well to do so, as some of my canker bunches 
contained worms. I have to regret with you that 
our legislature has done so little, in aid of the great 
agricultural interest of our state. Administration 
and anti-administration, all seem equally culpable 
in this respect. We have sent a majority of farmers 
to the legislature, with but little effect; they too 
have been tardy in legislating any thing to aid the 
all important business of farming: this is a no party 
business, and would it not, I ask, be well for all 
political parties to select their candidates for the 
legislature with more reference to this subject, 
who will truly represent the great agricultural in¬ 
terest of our state ? For it cannot be doubted that 
a vast majority would agree with you and me that 
the legislature should do something more efficient 
to give a stimulus td the agricultural iatewsst of our 
