The Florida agriculturist., 1885-02-25
'@The Tru1th About Florida" /"

The Tribune of to-day contains very
remarkable letter from +. ID. H., to the
-IEbany Journal, entitled 'sThe Truth
About Florida
will not answer his general denuncia-
tions-for they were evidently too mali
.cious and are not worthy of notice.
His chief grievance seems to be that
he was bothered with mosquitoes, and
9'slept by compulsion under a mosquito-
net during my entire stay in Florida"
and that it is damp, enervating, ma
larious climate.-ED.l cannot imagine
where this gentleman journeyed or
where he wintered that he was so an
noyed. j have spent the months
of February, March and April in that
State, and / can truthfully assert that l
did notneed to sleep under a mosquito
net one single night during that time.
The fact is, that mosquitoes are not any
more common in Florida during winter
or summer chan they are in any North
ern State / have suffered infinitely
more from these pests in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Illinois than in Florida.
The manager of my grove at Enterprise
assures me that he does not suffer from
mosquitoes during the summer half as
much as he did when he resided in the
suburbs of Chicago. My experience is
that during the daytime mosquitoes are
not troublesome in Florida, except when
YOU go into the low, swampy grounds on
the borders of the rivers and marshy
lakes. Even during the nights they
rarely infest dwelling houses unless they
are attracted by lights and are allowed
to enter by open widows-and even then
they are but few in number, unless the
"a ho,.1arc of a
marsh or near river. In the great hotels,
especially theolderOnes, in Florida towns
they are troublesome, but no worse than
in ANY of the large hotels in Chicago or
New York.
The assertion that Florida is one vast
swamp or marsh is atrociously false.
Fully one-half of the State of Florida,
above the 9th degree of latitude, is
made up OF high Land. ON this land the
soil is drv, dryer than the State of Illi-
nois The air in these pine woods is
pure and free from malaria. The lakes
are free from marshy borders, and have
clear, pure water, pebbly bank and bot
toms. l have slept through all the
nights of the winter months in such
places and never heard the song of the
mosquito. There is NO more malaria in
the State of Florida than i'm the States of
Illinois or Indiana What credence
would we place in the letter of man
who would make the sweeping assertion
that the whole area of the States of Illi-
nois and Indiana was a mosquito and
malaria breeding country?
Florida climate is not panacea for all
diseases, but / know from observation
and experience that there is no State in
the Union where the sufferers from
chronic catarrh, bronchitis, rheumatism,
neuralgia, neurasthenia and kindred dis
eases can find such relief as in the pine
forests and higher lands of that State.
Florida is greatly injured by its lying
''land-sharks, but they are like large
class of real estate dealers the world
over. Every new State has suffered
from their Misrepresentation But such
slanderers as "F. d. H." cannot injure
Florida.
On again reading the letter of f. D. H..
after writing the above, am impelled to
add that it is utterly incomprehensible
to me how any one who has spent any
time in Florida could misrepresent the
commonest facts-e. g., he writes OF
'1sultry nights,'' as if they were COM
mon. Now it is well known to every
visitor to Florida, as thousands OF Chi
cagoans who annually go there will bear
me witness, that hot, close, sultry
night is very rare. During the many
months l have resided there, l cannot
recollect but two or three hot nights, and
those were just precedinga storm. Even
in summer the evenings and nights are
deliciously cool, always with a gentle
breeze from east or west, laden with the
salt of the ocean or gulf-only twenty to
sixty miles away on either side.
As for malarious influences, it is the
experience of every physician who has
resided in or visited Florida that the ma
laria which does exist is of a much mild
er nature than in the North or any Gulf
State.
If visitors or residents would only
obey the simplest dictates of common
sense they wonld escape all such infu-
ences.
They imagine that as soon as they ar
rive in Florida they must dose them
selves with quinine, brandy, and blue
pills--a practice utterly absurd and inju-
rious, tending to bring on the very evils
they wish to avoid. Such eminent
Florida physicians as Drs. Kenworthy
and Stout, of Jacksonville, and the late
DIR. Lente, of Palatka, always denounced
the use of quinine as a supposed preven-
tive.-E. M Hale, N. D. IN Chicago
Tribune.