The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1870-02-02

IdGeS. Lie SUI 10 'Oi OooiiJ "OihOu' hHu
instead Of nine months in the year in which
nothing grows, there are but two or three in
which vegetation is checked.
1t is impossible for mere words to give
any description of the loveliness of the eli
mate of Florida. Winter weather there is
like New England April or May, while in
the hot months the nights are always cool,
and there is always gulf-breeGze or sea-
breeze
While thus anticipating great and pros
porous future for Florida, we would not for
get that there are sacrifices to be made in
its achievement Those who make up their
minds to emigrate to Florida should beware
of imagining it to be kind of Garden of
Eden, where all will be enjoyment without
trouble. No pioneer life is without hard.
ship, and for years to come life in Florida
will be essentially pioneer life. Let no one
imagine that the first sight of Florida will
be attractive. If he should happen to go
there in March, out of the midst of New
England snow storms it might be; the sight
of green, the scent of orange blossoms In
the air, may then make the country seem
delicious. Or if he visit some spot improved
by man, where the soil has been well cult
waited, orange groves planted, and flowers
trained, and all the roughness Of nature
smoothed, there, he will say, is paradise
regained. But if he go in the fall, or if he
gain his first view from the windows of
railroad car, looking out upon unimproved
lands covered with pine timber, dwarf pal
metto, and coarse grass, he will perhaps
think he never saw less beautiful, less IN
viting scene. But the capacity for beauty
is there. Let him be content to walt and to
work, to endure hardship, to make sacrifices
for few years, and he will see the wilder
ness become like Eden, and the desert bud
and blossom as the rose. For the present
he will leave schools, churches, and society
with its privileges behind him. He will meet
difficulties, discouragements, Inconvenience,
as he would if he went to Kansas or the
Rocky Mountains. But if he will perse-
we're, if he has pluck, if he fights manfully
against all obstacles, the result is certain.
There is no place in America where young
man who is willing to put up with some trou-
BILE at first, can acquire not only competence
but wealth so certainly, so easily, and SO
soon, as in Florida And how? Let him &C
cept the offer of fifty acre lot given to him
for nothing as an actual settler; or let him
purchase where prices are almost nominal
Let him put up shanty, and set out hun
dred orange trees, a hundred peach-trees, and
hundred grape-vines the first year,-lf he
can,-raising sweet potatoes, and other root
crops on the same land. Let him work
himself, and teach his hired freedmen to
work, treating them honorably and kindly.
Let him live frugally, self-denyingly, and in
few years those trees, with others added
annually, will be his support, his fortune.
And if he have leisure, now and then, to
plant climbing rose, trumpet creeper, a
wisteria, honey-suckle, and train them over
his trellis, or cottage, he will be amazed at
the growth they will make. And if he can
set out Cape myrtle, in few years it will
become tree. If he chance to get Cape
iessamine, it will grow to size unheard of
at the North, filling the whole region with
wondrous perfume. The little things that
he can do in odd moments, or those which
his wife, or children can DO, IN horticulture,
will produce results perfectly astonishing to
those whose life has been passed in northern
ATTITUDES. In Florida roses bloom in the
open air all winter, and the tenderest bulbs
are in no danger from exposure to frost. In
some parts of Europe large fields are devoted
to the cultivation of flowers for the manu-
facture of perfumes. This branch of indus
try might be carried to perfection in Florida.
A considerable item in the life of pioneer
is abundance Of game. In this respect
Florida is unrivalled. The waters are full
of the finest fsh,-mullet, sea-trout, reddish,
and many other varieties; the rivers, lakes,
sea, and gulf shores swarm with ducks and
wild fowl, and the woods are full of game.
One can step out with his rifle almost any
day, and bring home deer.
If we look at the question of emigration
in a moral aspect, we find much to interest
us. Every sober, industrious, religious emf
grant is precious addition to the population
of the State, and an element of the best kind
of reconstruction. Nowhere can Christian
do more good by a consistent walk and con-
versation than in Florida, where society is
in forming stage, and where schools,
churches, and other important institutions
are in so large measure to be founded.
We rejoice that the tide of emigration is
already flowing so steadily into Eastern Flor
ida. The time has scarcely yet arrived for
the advantages of West Florida to be appre-
ciated. When that day arrives, as it must
ultimately do, it will prove suspicious both
to the State itself, and to multitudes Of per-
sons of limited means who are seeking for
themselves Southern home. The greatest
difficulty thus far has been in the fact that
too many have gone to Florida in spirit OF
speculation, expecting to make sudden for
tune without toll or selfdenial, and with
no concern for the welfare of society,"
Numbers of such have met only loss and
disappointment, as might have been expected,
and have brought back an evil report of the
land. But their failure proves nothing in
respect to the success Of those who do not
90 to speculate, and who do go prepared for
toll and hardship, and with genuine beney.
client interest in the material, intellectual,
and spiritual development of their adopted
State Such have reasonable chances Of
success; and for the multiplication of such,
and their greatest prosperity, every lover Of
his country and of the choicest portion Of
it, Florida, will devoutly pray.