Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-11-22
A LETTER FROM FLORIDA.
Some Facts About the Climate, Fruits,
Products and Prospects OF the Peninsula
State.

in winter is very delightful. / do not
wonder that hundreds come here during
this season to shelter themselves from the
cold blasts of a protracted Northern VIM
ter. Since the war, the number of visitors
or invalids visiting this section for their
health has largely increased, until almost
every available point on the st. Johns
river or near the coast has its winter re-
sorts. Jacksonville has several very pleas
ant hotels, and they are generally we'll
filed all through the season extending
from the middle of November until the
first of June. AS an indication of the
climate, L was shown yesterday cucum-
Der vine in bloom, the gardener informing
me that with very little care and protec-
ton from occasional frosts, he expected to
supply his hotel table with cucumbers all
thrOughIwinter.
| have been here several days, and find q
light overcoat very comfortable with the
thermometer at 7S0 at noon.
FLORIDA FRUITS.
This has been termed the garden State
of the South. do not see much in the
soil to induce me to think much of its pre-
tensions in the respect referred to. The
whole peninsula is a vast bed of sand, as
level as n plain. In it is little lime, but
there is no strength or body to the land
and great care with abundant fertilizng is
required to grow even garden products
Though 1 saw an enthusiastic New Hamp-
shire Yankee, away up the st. Johns riv-
er, who declared he would get four hum
dred bushels of sweet potatoes from one
acre of his garden / am very skeptical of
any substantial or certain reward even for
the diligent husbandman. But while
there is little encouragement in this re-
spect in the way of fruits, Florida presents
great attractions to the visitor. In passing
about this city | have seen orange and
n ha1f
second crop, and banana trees that have
just been plucked of their yearly yield.
These trees are of course the object of in
terest to visitors. SO curious was / to see
fine orange grove that in company with
little excursion party, / visited Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stoves place at NIanda-
rim about fifteen miles SOuth-up the ST.
Johns riveT-of this place, where we We're
gratified with a novel sight. She has one
hundred and forty large orange trees all
now burdened with the ripening fruit.
Some of the trees will yield as many as
fifteen hundred fine oranges, and the trees
will average about a thousand. The
fruit sells on the tree at about two
cents an orange. L had a great de-
sire to eat thoroughly ripe orange
from the tree and have been gratified. The
fruit in that State is far more luscious than
as we get it in market in Tennessee. 1t is
sweeter and fresher, as any one will
readily understand. The skin is, how
ever, much stronger with the oil, so much
so that unless carefully removed your
hands become stained and your lips and
mouth burned. The Florida oranges and
bananas are mostly sent to the Southern
markets, and only shipped North on or
| ders. They are larger than the Cuba
oranges, and L guess, finer favored.
The bananas grow better on the coast
and little further South The tree is
fixrn 10
annually from the roots, yields its fruits
in one large cluster and then perishes.
Though not as highly favored as the red
Havana species, they are preferred by
many and are readily sold at fair profit
OTHER FLORIDA PRODUCTS.
In addition TO the fruits named, the pro-
| ducts of Florida are sugar cane, tupentine
lumber and alligators. The lumber trade
is the largest and most remunerative. The
| State is literally vast pine forest and
cypress swamp. On the excursion refer
red to, we steamed up Black Creek, where
thousands of alligatOrs, varying in size
from three to fifteen feet, are killed an
nually. Printed cards, Wanted, 1000 AL
| ligatOr Hides" are numerous. In the
shops of this city, alligators teeth, worked
into jewelry and ornaments of various
kinds, are offered and sold to visitors from
other States.
Florida has population of $4,000. 1t
| is sparsely settled and its growth, under
| the most favorable circumstances, will be
slow. The eastern shore will prosper most,
| because its attractive winter climate is
drawing a large class of wealthy residents,
who live about one half the year in the
| State.
The st. Johns River, which is a fine
| body of water rising in the southern part
of the State, made up, in fact, of a series
| of little lakes about five miles wide, has on
its banks many resorts for invalids. At
Green Cove, about thirty miles up the
river, we found large white sulphur
spring, the water of which stands at a
temperature of about seventy-siX degrees
all the year round. 1t lis "a powerful spring
about twenty-five feet in diameter, and af-
fords a fine bathing pond, which is sur
rounded with bath houses. The water has
great virtue and has worked some perma.
nent and remarkable cures, Often, the
gas thrown off is sufiocatng. Several
persons of great wealth, from Northern
States, have bought locations on the banks
of the river and highly improved them.
These are some of the points of interes
about Florida, and l give them for wha
they are worth. In another letter | may
have something to say of its condition
politically and otherwise.
, Ok the uuestion of protection for hOm,