The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-01-25
9itI1mond 9ispatrEl.
TUEsDAY.........JANuARY rs, 1870.
THE CIRCULATION OF THE "DIsP ATcHn
Is LARGER THAN TEE COMBINED cIRcU-
LATIoN OF ALL THE OTTER DALYNEws-
PAPERS OF THIS CITY.
For the Dispatch.
FOT thc DlspAtch.
Trees. Flowers, and Plants, I'm Florida.

NatuTe Is so powerful that she C0nQucrs
man. To clear the land, to drain the soil, t
plant and cause to grow what you desire, il
so severe task that most men shun it, and
hence the richest places-the swamps full
of deep rich mould, and covered with trees
matted together by vines and brushwood-
arc left as God made them, and inferior lands
are cultivated because they ore easier Il
subdue. In some parts there are ex.
tensive forests of cypress; towards tht
south Of Florida, near the everglades, these
become very extensive. Our, troops en-.
countered one called the Little Cypress
Swamp, not from the size of the trees o,
the difficulty of forcing their way through
them, but only from the fact that it was
narrower than tho Big Cypress, which was
twenty miles across. Any one who has
seen cypress tree can imagine the diff
culties of this march. They grow in soft
mud and water, spread out their roots and
branches ip every direction, and shoot UP
sturdy sprouts, called knees, that impede
progress. There is no firm foundation-nc
road can be made except by cutting down
trees and vines and filling up with hurdles,
and even then the bottom is treacherous
and unstable.
The Indian paths are unsafe without a
guide, and dangerous with one. They are
under water: you wade, stepping on trees
sunk below. the surface, and tho track will
suddenly turn to the right or left, the turn
incs known only to the initiated, so that an
incautiouS follower is soon foundering in
wafer or deep mud.
When our men had forced their way
through these treacherous footings they
hailed the everglades with joy. Here was
water, green with grass, boundless in ex-
tent. with is,aals of ycrdue here and there
cultivated and covered with garden patches.
The water was from one to six feet deep,
and with q firm bottom. 1t was not
navigable, but was passable, and a
trail could easily be traced. The Indian
custom was to make II rough boat by taking
the skin Of beef and drawing it up at the
edges in boat form. In this the guns, pro-
visions, and papooScs, were put, and drag,
gcd by cord made of bcan-grass from
island to island, or away from the pursu
ers. This made depressed track in tho
grass that remained for days, and could bt
followed like the trail Of 4 saw-log in thu
sand. / asked an old soldier, who hat
been on these campaigns, whether the ever
glade water was salt or fresh, and he re
piled, that though he had been week.
among them he really had nevc
tasted any of it. From which / dreV
tue inference that as war and whiske.
both began with the letter W, there Nigh
was always a god Of peace. Somebod.
ought TO write a treatise on the use of wins
kcy in war under the head of Fluid Amnu
milton, and dedicate it to General Grant.
IN these little ercrgladc islands, IA
south as they arc, below the frost line, TO
that has never been known to reach below
Cape Carnaveral, you may find every tropi
cal plant and product with which the native
were acquainted. The palm flourishcs
and also, of course, the orange, an'
other trees, which grow elsewhere il
Florida. The castor oil plant grows VI
to large tree Of several years
life; the arrowroot and sweet potat
patches merely require that stirring OF tn
ground necessary in removing the full
grown roots 10 cause the younger ones t
have room to grow and keep growing. l
is really rot necessary to plant more THAI
once. The bean and pumpkin vine vii
spread, take root from the tendrils, ant
continue to live. 1t is really an Indian
that is, lazy man's-paradisc. No wonde
that they were unwilling to move to tht
West. They had no sentiment about it
any more than other animals have; j
was not the graves of their father
they were unwilling to leave, it was
their potato and pumpkin patches the.
could not part with. BY the way, oul
epicures may take lesson from their cooking
in several points. Their pumpkin is small
round, and sweet; they cut it open, remove
the inside, put in raccoon or possum, ant
| sometimes other meat, cover it with ashes
and Goals, and bake it as we do an ash
cake. 1t is said to be q superb dish. An
| other plan is to take fish that has hardly
got the hook out of his mouth, and, with
out scaling or cleaning, wrap it up in leave:
and bake it in the same way. Our hunters
use wet newspaper. 1t is done when, i
you tear a piece of the wrapping, the ski
and scales come off with it. You tear OF
one side, eat the flesh, turn and eat tn
other, and throw bones and inside away.
Iheard of some very large sweet potatoe
in Florida, but saw none. They were s.
large that you could sit on one end, as on
| log, while the other end was roasting in tn,
fire or of that size that when you wen
into store and called for ten pounds o
potato, porter was called to lift one out
and cut off the necessary quantity will
an axe. I heard of these things, but dit
not see them.
have seen the elder plant grow up int
stout tree and afford shade. 1t could no
be known by the bark, but only by the leaf
The palmetto is Il humbug, and trouble
some one, too. It is not fit for anything
neither timber, shade, saw-logs, fencing, O.
beauty. The kind called cabbage palm il
alone useful. The top Of this is certainly
good to eat. Cut down the tree, strip of
the crown of leaves, and boil the core, ant
you have dish for a dozen men; it taste
more like turnip than anything else
with oil and vinegar it makes u fine salad
and wonder that it has never become al
article of export.
There are many varieties of the pal
metto, and all useless and troublesome
| There is small kind called saw palmetto
from its scrrated stem, that is hard to pen
citrate; thickets of it will cut clothes t.
pieces and use up dogs and horses if yor
attempt to 60 through them. Then tht
roots are as large as q mans thigh, anG
twisted and intcrlapped in every way, ever
although the plant be not more than three
feet high. They do not burn either; 1 have
seen the roots dug and piled in clearing
land, and they would only shoulder ant
90 out. The long leaves, however, make
fine thatch and lately they have beer
shipped to England, and found to make 1
good fibre for coarse mating: :.