Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-12-04
The FIorlda SCOTCH colony.

The Florida Scotch Colony.
Edorts are being made TO persuade the
Scotch coionists who have arranged to
settle in Florida, about 100 miles below
Tampa, to keep away from that State,
and particularly away from that section
OF the STATE in which they have decided
to make their homes. Two communlca-
tions have been published in the New
York Tribune, in which the cOlonlsts are
told that they cannot stand the climate,
and that they know nothing whatever
about cuitivating such things as can be
grown successfully and probably in
Southern Florida. They are also told
that they will be stricken with fever be-
cause the region is malartOus, and that if
they escape disease they will likely
starve. Their attention is drawn to the
West and Northwest where, it is alleged,
they can find cheap land and a climate
very much like that to which they have
been accustomed.
One of these communications may be
prompted by good motives, although the
writer of it may not be very well informed
about the section OF Florida of which he
speaks with go much positiveness. The
other communication reads very much
like that of an immigrant agent for West
ern land spectators.
AS matter Of fact, have the scotch col
onists any reason to apprehend greater
danger to health in Florida than in a
Northwestern State or Territory? Thou
sands OF people from the great lake region
where there are almost seven months of
winter, and from Northern Pennsylvania
and New York, where the winters are
very severe, and where there is not great
deal OF hot weather in the summer, are
settling in Florida every year. They re-
nam there throughout the year, and they
enjoy excellent health. They have TO be
little careful perhaps about exposing
themselves during their first summer, but
by exercising reasonable precautions
they are in no more danger of contracting
fever than they would be of being at
tackled by pneumonia in the Northwest
from exposure to the cold. Indeed, the
testimony OF most Northern people who
settle in Florida is that the summer eli
mate there is not only endurable, but, in
some respects, is preferable to that at
the North. In Florida and Louisiana
there are plenty OF Canadians VINO settled
in those States after the civil war, and
who not only enjoy good health, but are
very prosperous. OF course there are
places In Florida where there is malaria,
but are there not malarious districts in
every State in the UnlOnI
About all the early settlers OF Illinois,
Iowa, Wisconsin, and other Western
States suffered from malarial levers, and
even now fevers of this class prevail in
localities in those States to an alarming
extent.
1t is true that the crops that must be
depended upon in Southern Florida are
very different from those in Scotland, but
these immigrants from Paisley under
stand that. They have been told, doubt
less. that they cannot cultivate wheat,
and corn and oats, but must depend upon
vegetables, sugar cane, fruits and cotton.
There is every reason to suppose that
they are fully prepared to become ac-
quainted with the kind of agriculture that
is adapted to Southern Florida. They
are people of intelligence, and have
thoroughly informed themselves about
the resiOn they have selected for
their future home. They have made
their choice deliberately and with
fall understanding of the
facts in the case. The attempt to make
them dissatisfied with the country to
which they are going, before they have
had a chance TO see it, is not the way to
prepare them for the hardships and obsta-
cles which all immigrants have to encoun-
ter whether they settle in Western or
Southern States.
The Western immigrant agents have
noticed lately tendency on the part of
immigrants to seek homes in the South,
and they are trying to counterfeit it. The
immigrants are beginning to find out that
good lands at low prices can be had at
the South within couple Of days ride of
New York, and they are beginning to seek
them out. When they understand fully
what advantages the South offers TO them
it will require more than communications
in the New York Tribune to keen them
out of the Southern States.
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