CHAPTER XVII.

field and farm products.

All the crops of all portions of America can be grown
in Florida. Some produce better here than anywhere else,
others no better, a few not so well, but they will all grow
and produce fair yields. And in all cases they require less
care or labor than elsewhere ; there is not an exception to
this assertion known of in the long list of productions.
Besides, in many cases the same soil can be replanted with
the same or some other product within the same year.

Of the various field-crops cotton has by custom ranked
as the staple product in this State ; however, it is one of the
least productive, although it pays as well here as in any
other State or country where it can be grown. Sugar is
the "king" field-product of Florida, and it can hardly be
doubted that ere many years have elapsed a considerable
portion of the sugar and molasses that are now imported at
the cost of millions of dollars from Cuba and elsewhere will
be drawn from the soil of the Peninsular State.

Sugar-Cane.—In both climate and soil, Florida is pe¬
culiarly well adapted for the growth of sugar-cane, the
long period of warm weather and the absence of cold af¬
fording a longer period for the cane to mature. In Louisi¬
ana, owing to the frosts, the cane never tassels, and has to
be ground as soon as mature ; in South Florida it always
tassels, and can be worked at leisure through a period cov¬
ering several months. What is known in Louisiana as
" fair land " will produce from fifteen hundred to two thou-