These men are noticeably clean and smart in appearance; they are, too, as industrious as they look; for no loafers are allowed, and he who does not know how to work with a will soon receives his dismissal. The touch of English energy and English precision is plainly visible throughout—with one result, that, unlike Southern workmen, as generally found, these do not care to keep all the holidays which are so frequent in Roman Catholic countries. They work about ten and a half hours in the day; and each man is searched and numbered on coming in and going out.
The word Marsala recalls the time when the Saracens ruled the land, just as Mongibello for Etna, Gibbel Rossa at Palermo, and all Sicilian agricultural and irrigatory terms recall them. It is really Marsh-Allah, ‘the port of God.’ Round about our balio are many interesting things, principally the caves where, not so long ago, a murderer hid in perfect safety, and where in lawless times brigands and outcasts took refuge and found security. They are interminable, and it is impossible to visit them all; but our guide takes us through some of the most practicable, where we have occasion for a little gymnastic exercise here and there among the broken rocks and steep sharp pitches. An army of brigands might hide away here undetected and unseen. Fortunately, at this time there are none to hide. No organised band of brigands exists anywhere in Sicily, and the stranger is absolutely safe.
Besides these caves, there is a strange folly in the shape of a ballroom and banqueting-room cut out of the living rock. There are tables and the place for the musicians, benches and divisions, all made in the rock underground. These odd rooms have been used, and it is to be supposed enjoyed. When we see them, the only guests are black beetles, a couple of dirty little lads as unkempt as wild Highland cattle, and a half-maniacal shock-headed Dugald kind of creature, with an atmosphere of garlic, which makes us rejoice when we turn out once more into the fresh air blowing over the breezy flower-clad upland, with the blue sea in front and the bright sun overhead.
CONCERNING FLORIDA.
A contributor, who is conversant with his subject, sends us the following important items, which we commend to young men who contemplate emigration.
‘Heads of families,’ says our correspondent, ‘with “little to earn and many to keep,” with several sons growing up and having a desire to go abroad and see the world, will be glad to know that there are ways for providing for the olive branches other than sending them to Australia or Manitoba to earn merely nominal wages as farm-labourers. Until recently, the United States depended almost wholly upon the enterprise of foreigners for their supply of oranges; but, as if by an inspiration, the discovery has been made that they can, amongst the numerous other industries for which they are remarkable, grow their own oranges, and that, too, of better quality, both in size and flavour, than those which are imported. The great and unequalled facilities for cheap and rapid transportation have opened up nearly the whole of the peninsula of Florida to settlement; and what was only recently very correctly described as a vast expanse of swamps, lakes, and sluggish rivers, is now a vast system of drainage-canals and railways.
In Florida, four hundred pounds will buy forty acres of land, ten of which may be cleared, fenced, and planted with orange-trees. A house may be inexpensively erected at an average cost of ten pounds per room. The orange-tree will bear five years from the bud, or ten years from seed; but a man left in charge—say the son of the owner—would have no difficulty in supporting himself by the sale of small fruit, which, coming to perfection in the middle of winter, commands the best prices in the New York and other Northern markets. In ten years, oranges are handsomely remunerative, and the crop steadily increases in value with every succeeding year. For those who cannot wait so long, the lemon and lime may prove more attractive, as they bear much sooner. They are almost as profitable, though not quite so hardy.
The list of things which can be grown profitably in Florida is so long and various as to include such dissimilar articles as potatoes, cocoa-nuts, plantains, guavas, mangoes, tomatoes, pine-apples, pumpkins, water-melons—which frequently weigh a hundredweight—grape-fruit, citron, cotton, sugar, strawberries, coffee, tea, tobacco, mulberries, pears, quinces, apples, Scuppernong grapes, &c. The woods and forests which have been slumbering all these years are now alive with settlers, who are actively employed felling timber, clearing land, erecting fences, planting groves, building houses, and in numerous ways expending their energy on the improvement of the land. The old cry, “Go west,” has been changed to, “Go south;” and now thousands of families from the Northern States are there, having orange and lemon groves, with pretty cottages simply but comfortably furnished, situated on the banks of rivers and lakes.
For the man who is fond of outdoor exercise and has a taste for gardening, the life in Florida has a charm all its own, for fruit-growing is nothing but gardening on an extensive scale. The soil in Florida has the most unpromising appearance, looking like nothing so much as silver sand. Yet what a charm it possesses! Seeds put in this apparently hopeless material spring up almost immediately; and cabbages, lettuces, radishes, and turnips may be eaten three weeks from sowing in the middle of January. Fish of large size, from ten pounds upwards, abound in the rivers and lakes, and being easily caught, make a very welcome addition to the larder. Deer, wild turkeys, quail, and numerous other kinds of game have not yet learned to shun the haunts of men.
Extensive drainage-works have made available for settlement vast tracts of land which have probably been submerged for centuries, but which now, thanks to the remarkable system of drainage-canals, is as dry and firm and as healthy to live upon as the best land in the State. A pretty site judiciously chosen on the banks of a lake will eventually enormously enhance the value of the property when the surrounding country is settled up. The plan suggested for persons of small means is to take up forty acres. Having ten acres cleared and planted at once, the whole might be fenced in, and a comfortable house built in the middle of the allotment. The remaining thirty acres can be brought into cultivation by degrees, and in the meantime will serve to graze cattle and sheep, which, being turned into the grove at night, fertilise it in the most effectual and inexpensive manner.’