The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-05-21
In the Saddle Among the Pines of
Florida.

First requisite for day of pleasure,
perfect weather, thermometer eighty |
degrees in the shade at noon; second, a
number of genial mounted companions ;
third, good saddle steeds. These were
ours for the day; the fourth, which
many would think necessary to make a
success-dogs and guns-were missing,
as our party had no murderous designs
upon any living thing, but were out to
see the country and the settlements so
rapidly filling up. The scene was so
different from that obtained from the
deck of a st. Johns river steamboat, or
usually from the windows of a railroad
l1aa< tssat I fear the s1,aA ess.sv.sA ks.: -
Ssiosn face that moIehiIls are apt {,
De magniHed into mountains in ETorfds,
and land agents entice the visitors from
billy New England to what they describe
as rolling billy or mountainous region /;
| but which the traveller used to the gen
uine, utterly repudiates. Many, how
ever, that are raised among the Berk-
shire hills, with all their picturesque
beauty are tired of the necessity of
climbing them, and long for more level
and fertile landscape. For fear shall
be taken as advertising a section, | will
not give its name, OF my own; so simply
consider this epistle, reader, entirely
disinterested.
Amid banter and Jest, our party finally |
mounted and started off at brisk canter |
through a high rolling pine country. |
whose valleys were always covered with |
the pureSt and clearest of fresh water
lakes, varying in size between the gem
OF hundred yards in diameter and the
inland sea of a score of miles across. 1t
is safe to say, in our ride of dozen
miles we saw at least a score of the
smaller, surrounded by hills twenty to
one hundred feet high, whose. sides'are
covered with pines, and are so clean
that carriage can be drived in any di
rection unobstructed by underbrush
other than an occasional black Jack or
fallen pine monarch. These lakes afford
the most desirable building lots for the
incoming settlers, and already are fast
being taken up; and the murmuring
pine' is making way for the more prac-
teal and beautiful orange tree and its
food-producing brethren. Anon we come
to saw-mill, which SO quickly trans
forms the great logs into lumber for the
cottages. Ten thousand feet per day
they manufacture, yet so great is the
demand there is none piled up ahead
but as fast as it comes from the whirring
saw it is drawn, green as it is, direct to
CLe oeIlleIo waiting camp. NOW We
skirt the shore of great lake and plunge
into the trough of a rich hammock, with
its mass of tropical vegetation. The ON
nipresent pine here gives way to the
glossy-leaved magnolia and cabbage
palmetto, while the jasamine and other
wood vines cover the dense underground.
Such land is very rich, but the extra
cost ofclearing for cultivation, if applied
to fertilizers on the more healthful high
pine, will doubtless be as satisfactory.
We galloped across an intervening
ridge, and come upon lovely view.
From an elevation we look down upon
two pretty lakes divided by a strip of
clean pine forest. A party OF fishermen
are trolling for trout on the larger body
of water, and we can easily believe its
banks are frequented by deer, while
quail-here called partridges-whir out
almost from beneath our horses feet.
The crooked-necked, snow-white, long
legged bird on the beach we recognize
as the Florida crane, from the stuffed
specimens in the coriosity-store window.
We dismount, hitch our painting steeds,
and follow path that leads to a bub- |