The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1880-11-30

its tobAccO growing l&nde. The culture
Of tobacco in this region appears to owe
its origin TO Governor William p. Duval,
who, in 1898, started the planting Of .
certain small-leafed variety of Cuba to-
bacco, afterwards known a the 6 Iitfle
Duval' Then the Florida Wrappers,
larger variety, came into demand. The
county of Gadsden is said to have raised
twelve hundred thousand pounds of to-
baeco in 1850; and many statements were
made in the Florida Convention OF Fruit
Growers last winter, showing the great
capacities of this region for the culture Of
fine favored tobacco. But these lands
really appear to have capacities for all
things. Besides the great staples of cot
ton, corn, sugar-cane, wheat, tobacco, they
produce market vegetables in prodigious
abundance, and the growing of these for
northern and western markets appears to
be rapidly becoming a great branch of
profitable industry. These lands
can be bought, cleared, for from FIVE to
thirty dollars an acre-in many ins stances
at far less than the cost Of their original
preparation for the plow."
What we have quoted applies, gener-
ally, to the whole region of Middle Flor
ida; but there is almost as great a variety
of soil and product within its borders as
within the more expanded limits of the
United States. The cereals of the West,
the timber products of the Lake Region,
the vegetable productions of the East,
and the fruits of the Middle and Southern
States, with the possible exceptions of a
few varieties of winter apples and of a
few Of the more tender tropical fruits of
South Florida, can all be produced here
in profitable and almost astonishing
abundance.
The present condition of agriculture is
SO well depicted in the language Of an
other writer that we again quote freely ::
In the early settlement of these coun-
ties-when Florida was still territory,
or newly admitted into the sisterhood of
States = the wealthy farmers of more
Northern States, attracted by the genial
climate and fertile soil of Middle Florida,
came with their slaves and bought and
cleared large tracts of land, which, under
the then prevailing system of labor, were
cultivated with abundant profit. Year
by year all accumulations, above what
was necessary for the expenses of an ex-
travagant living, were reconverted into
lands and slave property, until this system
resulted in the country being settled with
small class of intelligent population, (the
white property owners,) and large class
of ignorant negro laborers. Such was
the condition of this section at the out
break of the late civil war, which marks
an era in its industrial history. During
the four years of strife the position of
things, as regards population, remained
essentially the same; but when, under the
stern hand of war, this section, in CON-
mon with the other States of the Confed-
eracy, was forced to rely upon itself for
the means of subsistence, then was made
an exhibit of what might be done by the
agricultural interests of Middle Florida,
if the proper direction was given to its
many resources. Cut off from the grana-
| ries and provision houses of the North
and West, Middle Florida not only pro-
duced enough supplies for home consump-
ton, but made herself one of the great
sources supply for less fortunate sections,
and exported her cotton and wool, her
grain, meat, sugar, syrup, tobacco, &c,
in large quantities to feed and clothe the
| fighting armies of the Confederates. At
the close of the war the whole fabric of
society was changed. The negro was
freed, and in the first joy Of his newborn
liberty the freedman, unable to appreciate
the necessity of labor, was averse to en-
gaging in Legitimate employment he
considered that what his late master
owned was made by his labor, and conse-
quently belonged him, and that it was
only taking his own if he should appro-
pirate the property of the whites. The
whole duty and responsibility of citizen
ship is not to be learned in day, and
time has been required to teach the negro
race their true position in the fabric of
government and social society, and to
make them valuable members of the in
dustrial community. The emancipation
of the slave property of the planters left
the landed proprietor, whose all was in
his farm, at the mercy of circumstances ;
without means to cultivate his broad acres,
with unreliable and inefficient labor, and
with no opportunity of disposing of his
surplus lands, he had to shift as best he
might in order to get his farm cultivated,
to make living and pay enormous taxes
and SO was inaugurated the tenant system
of farming now vogue, which we consider
is injurious to the permanent development
of the country, and furnishes no just cri-
terion Of the capacity of the soil for pro-
duction, nor of the variety of products
which might be demonstrated as fit for this
section if the land was titled by intelli-