Heart-pine lumber, suitable for fencing or building purposes, can be had here at $15 per M. Light wood posts can be purchased at $10 per hundred.
22d. “What is the price of labor in your vicinity?”
Colored laborers can be hired at from $15 to $20 per month, with board or rations. The price is $1 per day when the laborer boards himself.
23d. “Are fish, oysters and game plentiful?”
Our rivers and bayous are literally alive with mullet—the mackerel of the South. Sea-trout (black bass), jack-fish, sheepshead, red-fish, angel-fish, drum and pompino can also be had in abundance in the water around Palm Key, at the mouth of the bay. Oysters and clams of a superior quality can be had in Terraceia and Sarasoto Bays. Deer, squirrels, quail and wild turkeys abound in the adjoining hammocks.
24th. “Can you refer me to any person in your vicinity whose health has been benefited by the climate?”
Yes; several. Rev. Edmund Lee, of Manatee, arrived here forty-five years ago, a confirmed invalid; in fact, nearly gone with pulmonary consumption. On his first arrival he was so weak that it required considerable effort to pull a mullet off a grid-iron. The healthfulness of the climate, together with out-door exercise and a clear conscience, have enabled him to fight the flesh and the devil successfully to the present time. He is at this time a well-preserved patriarch of seventy-two years; has outlived two wives, and bids fair to remain many years longer on this side of Jordan.
Mr. John M. Helm, residing some three miles south-east of Braidentown, arrived from Windsor, Ind., about four years since. He also was nearly gone with consumption. One lung was hepatized, and on the other a tubercle formed, and discharged after his arrival here. Physicians at the West pronounced his case hopeless—beyond the reach of medicine—and recommended the climate of Florida as a last resort. He is now a well man, and can hoe more orange trees in a day, and hoe them better, than any man I know in Florida.
Two years ago I arrived here, clad in porous-plasters, suffering with chronic rheumatism. Two months later I was as frisky as a lamb in spring time. I am convinced that my old complaint has left me never to return, so long as I remain here. I could record other cases, but the above must suffice for the present.
25th. “State the most direct route to Braidentown.”