28 FLORIDA,

unable timber for ship-building is found in the same locality.
Such being the natural advantages which invite enterprise
to this quarter, there can be no doubt that, when its agri-
cultural resources are more generally understood, southern
Florida will be covered with a dense population of thrifty
farmers. Cuba with almost a c rrendg-elimate, has
several hundred plants which serve as a basis to her agri-
culture, such as grains, farinaceous roots, edible seeds, veg-
etables, salads, sauces, and fruits ; the great staples of ex-
portation sugar, coffee, and tobacco; plants for dyes,
yielding oil, suitable for cordage or cloth, yielding gums
and resins, good for tanning ; grasses; and woods employed
in various uses. Now, it is well known that most of the
productions of Cuba are growing in south Florida, and,
with cultivation, might be made to rival those of that cele-
brated island. Sea-island cotton of a fine quality has been
produced in the very center of the peninsula. Florida sur-
passes Cuba in variety and delicacy of vegetable culture.
At all seasons of the year beets, onions, egg-plants, carrots,
lettuce, celery, etc., are produced with the most indifferent
culture, while everything that grows upon vines is in abun-
dance and in great perfection. Cabbages and Irish pota-
toes, if planted in October, produce well. The former have
been grown at Fort Myers, a single head weighing forty
pounds. Cattle, hogs, and poultry increase astonishingly.
Besides the above, tobacco, pindars,. cow-peas, and Irish
potatoes yield abundantly.
 The prairie lands are immense meadows, clothed with
 luxuriant verdure, interspersed with clumps of oak-trees
 and palmettoes of from five to ten acres each. These lands
 are looked upon as inferior for agricultural purposes, and
 are subject to periodical inundations during the summer
 season-i. e., from the beginning of June to the 25th of
 August. They are the favorite resort of vast herds of cat-
 tie and game, which roam and graze upon the fragrant herb-
 age. The estimate of the amount of cattle is from 150,-
 000 to 200,000 head, thereby forming one of the principal
 products of the country. Stock-cattle sell for five dollars
 per head, and beef-cattle from nine to thirteen dollars per
 head. Hogs also do well, and, when strict attention is paid
 to them, pay well. I have known and heard of several
 instances m which the common woods-hog, two and a half