In climate Florida is never cold, and never extremely hot. A record of 20 years shows the following mean for the several months named, at Key West and at St. Augustine : The records at St. Augustine for more than a century show that the average of sum mer months was 86° and of winter months about 60°. The widest extreme noted ranges from 35° as the lowest, to 95° as the highest. Breezes from the ocean and gulf temper the air, and the nights are almost invariably cool. There is little of spring or autumn; summer lasts two thirds of the year; the rainy season covers the remainder. Florida is considered highly favorable to persons affected with pulmonary complaints, and is largely resorted to by consumptives. The ratio of deaths from consumption in 1870 was smaller in Florida than in any other state except Nevada, although many consumptives go there when quite incurable.
Florida was once well stocked with the larger wild animals, but few of them remain. Brown bears are found, and wolves may haunt the swamps, though they are believed to be extinct. The raccoon, the opossum, the (woodchuck), rats, bats, and mice are common, and deer, rabbits, and squirrels are found. The most formidable animal is the alligator, thousands of .them inhabiting the rivers, lakes, and everglades. The huge manatee (sea-cow) is occasionally taken, and the genuine crocodile is said to exist. The sounds along the keys are well stocked with turtles, some of enormous size. There are also sharks and enormous cuttlefish along the coast, and abundance of edible fish in the rivers and lakes. There are ducks, wild turkeys, hawks, eagles, vultures, owls, and of small birds a vast variety of rich plumage, though not noted for song; but this deficiency is fully supplied by the mocking-bird, which in Florida reaches its highest perfection and fills the whole country with harmony.
Live-oak, pine, and hickory trees thrive well. Minerals are scarce, but some precious stones, corals, and calcareous limestone have been discovered. A singular natural fea ture is known as a "sink," a hollow worn in the limestone streams. In many places there are underground streams large enough to good water-power; and near Tallahassee is a lake, clear and cold, which is fed from subterranean streams.
The light soil of Florida, for the most part sand or loam overlaying clay, varies from uselessness in the pine barrens to extreme fertility in the bottoms and hummocks. Most of the grains of the temperate zone grow in the n, part of Florida; and in other sections tropical fruits thrive. Corn .grows it all parts. Long and short staple cotton, sugar
cane, tobacco, sweet potatoes, rice, hemp, coffee to some extent, peanuts in profusion, rye. oats, and a little wheat, are grown. Favored by its southern position, Florida is able to furnish abundance of garden vegetables to the northern cities from a month to six weeks in advance of the local season, and many steamers are engaged in this trade in early spring. The orange is the most valuable fruit, but lemons, pineapples, figs, olives, citrons, bananas, etc., are, grown. Florida oranges are of excellent flavor, and their cultivation is rapidly extending.. The yield, usually some hundreds to a tree, is sometimes as high as 10,000 to a tree. About 100 trees are raised to the acre, and very large profits are easily made, but after some years of delay. Peaches and plums do well, but apples and pears do not. Grapes are prolific and excellent. Cocoanuts, plantains, ginger, pepper, cloves, and pimento can be grown. Indigo was formerly cultivated, but has been abandoned. Besides live-oak (valuable for ship timber) and pine, there are 4iplendid flowering magnolias, cypress, dogwood, bay-laurel, satinwood, ligum vitro, palmetto, mangrove, torchwood, the poisonous Manchineel, and the castor oil bean,which is here a perennial tree.
Florida is not a manufacturing state, but there are important exports of turpentine., pitch, rosin, and lumber. There are many cigar manufactories, and salt is made by solar evaporation. The fisheries of Florida are valuable, and the sponge fishery is pro ductive. The commerce of the state is mostly domestic, though Key West, Pensacola, and Fernandina have a considerable West India and Mexican trade. • The principal cities and towns are Jacksonville, Key West, Pensacola, Fernandina, Tallahassee (the capital of the state); and St. Augustine (the oldest white settlement in the United States).
There were published in Florida Jan. 1, 1879, 33 newspapers and magazines: 2 daily, 2 semi-weekly, 28 weekly, end 1 monthly. Florida had in 1878, 87,750'persons of school age (4 to 21 years); enrolled, 31,133; average attendance, 21,787; 970 teachers; school fund, $243,500; income, $17,962; expense, $102,817; value of school property, $116,934. There were no colleges, but one of agriculture was soon to be founded. The entire receipts for education were $183,311; $150,641 from taxation; $17,962 from apportion ment; $11,108 from private sources; and $3,600 from the Peabody fund.