Biscayne Bay, Dade Co., Florida, Between the 25th and 26th Degrees of Latitude. / A complete manual of information concerning the climate, soil, products, etc., of the lands bordering on Biscayne Bay, in Florida.

A COMPLETE
MANUAL
INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTS, ETC., OF THE LANDS BORDERING ON BISCAYNE BAY, IN FLORIDA.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY. 1876.

THE information contained in the following pages has been carefully collected almost entirely by Mrs. JAMES E. WALKER, of Albany, N. Y. The facts stated are but a small portion of the large amount of material in her possession. The compiler has endeavored to give due credit to all by name whose statements are given, so that none may suppose he has either drawn upon the resources of his imagination or appropriated the ideas and language of others as his own.
HENRY E. PERRINE.
June , 1876.
In our northern States there are thousands of health and pleasure seekers who every fall eagerly hasten away from comfortable and luxurious homes to escape the rigors of approaching winter. Of late years the current of travel has been constantly increasing, being directed more and more toward that portion of our country which, beyond dispute, can now claim to be more healthful and free from disease than any other section of the Union. The statistics furnished by the Surgeon-General of the United States establish this fact. He says: “The diseases which result from malaria are of a much milder type in the Peninsula of Florida than in any other State in the Union. These records show that the rates of deaths to the number of cases of remittent fever has been much less than among the troops serving in any other portions of the United States. In the middle division of the United States, the proportion is one death to thirty-six cases; in the northern, one to fifty-two; in the southern, one to fifty-four; in Texas, one to seventy-eight; in California, one to one hundred and twenty-two; in New Mexico, one to one hundred and forty-eight; while in Florida, it is but one to two hundred and eighty-seven .” More will be said upon this subject further on. The facts compiled in this little pamphlet with great care, are not intended alone for the benefit of the invalid and mere seeker of pleasure. They are to attract the attention of the large number of people who for many years have been struggling in the various avenues of business, in our cities and large towns, men whose earnings, even if large in the aggregate, have been each year swallowed up by the increased cost of living in these later days. For those who would like a home in a more genial clime, where they can, by patient industry, within from two to six years, lay the sure foundation for a permanent income, where the expenses of living are not more than about one-fourth as great as in the north, these pages will surely be of interest and will repay them for the time consumed in their perusal. The peninsula of Florida extends abruptly from the main land of the continent, in a direction a little east of south. It is nearly 400 miles in length, and has an average width of 130 miles. Its formation is peculiar. Every other peninsula in the world owes its existence to a central mountain chain, which affords a stubborn resistance to the waves. Florida has no such elevations, and mainly a loose, low, sandy soil. It has another peculiarity. It is said, that at no other point in the world do the trade winds divide, as at Cape Sable. On the one hand, passing up the east coast to the Atlantic, and on the west into the Gulf of Mexico. This it is that produces that wonderful equability of climate, that puzzles a northern man to understand, why it should be so much cooler in summer than at the north. The base of all southern Florida is limestone, not tertiary, but modern and coralline. This it is that prevents all miasma, and this decomposed limestone with its admixture of vegetable mold, makes the best soil in the United States for the introduction of tropical plants. This it is, also, that causes the difference in fertility of this soil, as compared with the siliceous sand of the more northern part of the State. Biscayne Bay is located on the south-eastern coast of Florida, between the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth degrees of north latitude, below the frost line, and is included within the limits of Dade county. The following facts are quoted from the “Florida Settler and Immigrants’ Guide,” prepared by Dennis Eagan, Commissioner of Lands and Immigration: “The climate of Dade county is exceedingly agreeable and conducive to health. The thermometer throughout the year shows a temperature of about seventy-five degrees, the extremes being fifty-one and ninety-two degrees. It is never visited by frost, and the heat in midsummer is much less oppressive than at New York or places further north, being tempered by the influence of the Gulf Stream, which flows within a few miles of the coast. The water is pure and good. Many fine springs are found in different parts of the country; some of them mineral springs of considerable value. The everglades, which are within the limits of Dade county, simply consist of a shallow lake of vast extent—the water is from six inches to six feet in depth, and teems with aquatic and semiaquatic plants, which present to the eyes of the beholder a scene of perpetual verdure. Out of the surface of the lake rise innumerable small islands, which are covered over with a growth of cypress, sweet bay, crabwood, mastic, cocoa palms, cabbage palmetto, and live and water oaks. The waters abound in turtles, fish, etc. Around the margin of the everglades is a prairie, from half a mile to a mile in breadth; this prairie comprises some of the richest land to be found in the United States, and has a productive capacity for every variety of vegetable life known in the tropics that is unsurpassed. Between the margin of the everglades and Biscayne Bay and Barnes Sound, there is a strip of land from three to fifteen miles in breadth. It is for the most part rocky pine land, and some portions have a considerable elevation above the level of the ocean. The deposits are oolitic and crystalline calcareous rock. In the vicinity of the bay the land is covered with an undergrowth of sago palm, called the coontie, probably from the Indian designation of the root. It yields an excellent article of starch, and also farina, which cannot be distinguished from Bermuda arrow root, except by the aid of the microscope. The soil is well adapted for the cultivation of sea island cotton, which is here perennial, and can be picked at almost all seasons of the year. Along the bay tobacco, equal to the best grown in Cuba, can be cultivated” (yielding from five to seven cuttings each year), “while every variety of tropical fruit can be grown successfully. The banana, plaintain, cocoanut, guava, sapadilla, pomegranate, mamma, tamarind, pine-apple, lime, lemon, and citron. Limes are so abundant in some places that they literally cover the ground. Grapes ripen in May. The finest varieties of fig are found in great abundance. The olive tree yields an oil equal to the best of Lucca. The castor oil plant is also very productive, and the Sisal hemp of commerce, from which the best of cordage is made, is wonderfully abundant. Sugar cane grows to a great height, and ratoons from seven to ten years. The tomato gets to be a stout bush, with hard, woody stalk, and bears continually. Biscayne Bay abounds with a great variety of fish, and is also the favorite haunt of the green turtle; it here finds an abundance of the peculiar seaweed it prefers and on which it thrives and fattens, and the water swarms with them. Key West offers a market for all that can be caught, and turtle catching, in this section, is a most lucrative employment. Sponges are very abundant, and a large trade is now carried on in Key West in this article. The sponges taken from these waters probably realize for the gatherers fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars per annum.” Northern persons, in going to this section, must leave behind them all their preconceived ideas as to soil, for they will find that the above-mentioned rocky pine lands are “ the very best ” for the cultivation of most of the tropical fruits, but the prairie lands, to use the language of Col. M. A. WILLIAMS (the State agent for the survey and location of the lands granted to the State by the general government), “are inconceivably rich, beyond description,” and are well adapted to the growth of the most exhausting crops of sugar cane and tobacco. L. D. STICKNEY, says in his pamphlet on Florida, “It is a great mistake to suppose that sugar cannot be made to advantage without the investment of large capital. The cane produced on less than ten acres of ground, is usually ground in a wooden mill, which does not cost more than $100 (generally the work of the farmer himself), while the juice is boiled in the common utensils of the kitchen, or at best, as the New England farmer manufactures his maple sugar. The yield is usually greater, in proportion to the stock worked, than where the machinery has cost ten or fifteen thousand dollars! Cane is cultivated with more ease than corn, not requiring so much hoeing. From midsummer to the time of harvesting, the hands may be employed in other business; and even at the time of taking off the crop, no great increase of hands is required, as in Louisiana or Texas, where frost prevails. One hand can cultivate six acres with the hoe, or ten to twelve with the aid of a horse and plough. At the same time he can raise other crops sufficient to subsist himself and family. Twelve hundred pounds of sugar to the acre, is an average yield, though four thousand pounds have been produced. (This refers to the yield on land further north than Biscayne Bay; it is very certain that the larger yield can be relied upon in this locality.) “The molasses is always expected to pay the expense of manufacturing.” Col. M. A. WILLIAMS, while engaged in the United States survey in 1874, writes: “This country is attracting attention; those who are here (and there are several from various States, who have come since January), are perfectly delighted.” WM. M. SWAN, who was with him, writes, “Biscayne Bay comes up to the preconceived idea general with strangers in Florida. If this place (I mean the entire Bay), had a competent party to write it up as it is , into notice, the larger part of the travel and investment would undoubtedly center here .” “The whole of Biscayne Bay, is far more beautiful than the scenery along the Indian river and the St. Johns.” “We met here a Mr. SAMUEL ROGERS, of Omaha, seeking health, and a desirable tropical home for his family. After carefully plodding over the beaten track, the St. Johns and Indian river, he finally selected this as the Eldorado he had been seeking. Mr. ROGERS is one of the founders of the new thriving city of Omaha.” Under date of May 30th, he writes: “The nights are always pleasant, calling for a blanket before morning. I must admit, that with the exception of Key Largo, I have not found mosquitoes any thing as bad on the whole, as I was led to believe.” A Mr. JONES, of New York, reported to be very wealthy, says, “he has traveled over the continent of Europe two or three times; has visited all of the Islands of the Mediterranean in search of a climate favorable to his (heart) disease. He decides unequivocally in favor of the Bay, and announces his intention to buy a small tract of land, put up a splendid cottage, stock an orchard complete in every fruit suitable, have his steam yacht on hand for his convenience to travel anywhere; but his home must be here . The climate he says, is far more agreeable and delightful the year round than any he has found.” He has been boarding with Mr. ADDISON for one or two seasons. We see plenty of deer, and one of our party on Sunday killed one and wounded another. Mr. NOYES brought in a live fawn and saw ten yesterday, although too shy to get a shot. Partridges are numerous. I wish I could have time to write fully on the fruits that could be grown here. Bananas, plantains, etc., the year around. The Rev. D. W. W. HICKS, of Miami, Biscayne Bay, Dade county, in a speech, made before the Florida Fruit Growers Association, said: “Mr. President and gentlemen—I place myself below ‘the frost line’ and within a territory, the most beautiful by nature, and the most susceptible to the attentions of industrial art, probably, on the continent. It may not compare in rugged grandeur with the far West, up the canyons of the Yellowstone, or within the picturesque valleys of the Rocky mountains; but more beautiful, because with us, nature is in repose and at rest, holding in her lap the riches of a semitropical clime, adorned with the perpetual bloom of Spring, and regaled with the unceasing concerts of the oriole and mocking bird. Who can do justice to that climate? The sick are restored to health, the poor may speedily become rich by industry. While borne upon every breeze is the balmy health giving breath of the Gulf Stream.” BYRON in one of his rhapsodies, speaks of being “intoxicated with eternity.” The sentiment seems vague and almost unnatural, but whoever casts himself into the eddying blessings of the climate of which I speak, will, if he have a spark of sentiment, forgive the poet’s license. The rheumatic and the consumptive, with ordinary care, lose their ailments with us. Eighteen months ago, one came from the hyperborean regions of the North, lame and almost despairing. He was accompanied with crutches. A few months enabled him to throw them aside, and to-day you would rejoice to take a tramp with him through the Coontie forest, or better still a sail in his boat upon the bosom of the Bay of Biscayne. He is well. Rheumatism and my friend have parted company, and his crutches are the relics of a past age. The climate suits the consumptive, because rude, abrupt changes in the atmosphere are almost unknown . The Gulf Stream hugs our shores so devotedly that from the North, Northeast, East, Southeast and South, no chill can obtrude upon us. The strongest breeze is tempered with a warm and genial spirit. It is impossible to conceive of a more perfect climate, taking it all in all. Of course we have plenty of sunshine, and hot sunshine too; but with the sunshine comes the breeze, and not a day in the whole year need be lost on account of the heat. If the soil is thin, for the most part it is very rich and yields abundantly