Florida

Written for the Coukixr. Orlan do, Orango Co., Fla. April 21, 1880. Editor Courier: The republican state umi congressional cooventions for tbis county conimenced at this place to-day. A large nutnber of delcgates were present, the several precincts all being reprenented. Ouod orüer, pcrifecc liaiujuuj, and the best of spirits prevailed. We have had the honor of attending several ooventions in Michigan, and feel proud to say that notwithstanding wo have ever feit a pride in the fact, thitthe republicans of Michigan, in all theconventionsin which we have participated, or attended have been oredibly represented, thst we can say we have seldom witnessed a more preposessing looking and intelligent appearing body of men in oonvention assemblee! than were very many of those who were present here to-day. Florida as a state is rapidly becoming northernizetl, and Yankee energy and enterprise is exbibiting itself in almost every county in the state, and is nowhere more conspieuous or demonstrative than in this section of South Florida. Men representing almost every state in the Union, north, mth, east and west, are here tobe found. At the present time the preponderante of intelligence is, as a matter of couree, from the north. (In speaking of the north, the people here include all north of Mason and Dixon's line, and a greater portion of the southern states,) and northern men will soon predomínate in numbers. For as the tide of emigration westward, ever bas", and ever will, cause the native of the forest to recede and give way to the aggressive and progressive white man, and they are gradually but eurely becoming eztinct, even 80 the influx of emigration from the hills and and valleys of the New England and middle states, and the fertile prairies of the west to Florida, is causing the native and less active Floridian to gradually give way to a higherand more intelligent class of settlcrs; and at no very distant day, the original, typical, and primitivecracfeerpopulation of the present time, very many of them, who with their predecessora "from the time when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary" have lived upon hog and hominy, will either become extinct or so thoroughly northernized.that succeeding generations will only know or hear of them from the records of history, or the traditional legends, and memorial which will be preserved by future generations, and relate them to their successors, who are, in the very nature of events, destined not only to occupy, and control socially and politically, the most delightful, fruitful, beautiful and healtliful península, but the paradise of America. Much of late has been written and said of Florida both from its present and prospective 8tandpoint. Some, as might havo been expected, have spoken of it in flattering and others in disparaging terms, but we are free to confess that, after a residence here for the past six months, having in the meantime visited several counties, that as pardal as we have been to the west, and as much attached as we are to Michigan, that we have not only found Florida a splendid state in which to Uve, but that in our botter judgment it holds out more inducenients and offers more favorable and ampie opportunities and advantages, all things considered, both to the rich and the poor man (especially the latter) than any other state in the Union, situated as t is between 25 and 31 north latitude, surrounded on three sides by water, traversed in the interior by navigable rivers and indented with innumerable beautiful inland lakes, possessed of a semi-tropical and most beautiful climate, whioh is, by reason of the fact of its close proximity to the gulf and sea shores, so tempered by their waters that it is more uniform, genial and salubrious than that of any other state in tbe Union. The effects of frost, very rarely seen in its lightest form, being visible in winter, while even in mid-summer the mercury seldom, ever, perceptibly climbs as high here as it does in many of our northern and weat ern cities. And while t is a fact that vory niuoh o the soil of Florida, so far as its productive ness is concerned, will not compare favor ably with the grasa and grain growing states of the west, or the better portion o your own state (thero is none better) it i equally if not more fertile and productivo in the main than the greater portion o northern Michigan, whieh bas for the past few years been so highly recommended aru extensively advertised. And at the same tiine it bas not only the advantages of a superior climate, but ia more easily clearec and susceptible of being fertüized, from the fact that its soil is both less porous anc subject to drouth, and more appreciative and susceptible of fertillzation and cultiva tion ; as it is a conceded fact by all who have seeu it demonstrated, that a smal amount of fertilizer of almost any kinc will produce a greater and quicker change in the appearance of our soil and moro abundantly oontribute to tlie growth ol vegetation tban that of any other 8tate which they have ever seen. For me to say that our climate is sucb that the producer can grow not only a greater vanety of producís than can be produeed in any other state, but that he can plant and transplant, reap and sow each and every month in the year is uncalled fcr, as of this fact, the intelligent readers of Michigan are all fully cognizant. Here as in Michigan we have a great vanety of aoils, high and low, rich and poer lands, hunioeka, swamps and barren ; but nearly all when propeily utilized aro susceptible of producing either grains, cano, fruits, cotton or vegetables, (orange and lemooi can bo grown on the most ftirile lands) of affurd pu.-turage for the thousand.i of head of cattle which roam at lanje throughout south Florida, and subsist upon the spontaneous producís of the furests and prairies the entire year. Rice, corn, (cotton and sugar cane) and various otliur varieties of graiu are sucocs-fully grown here, while potatoes (both Irish and sweet), onions, turnips, tomatoes, mellons and other field and garden products, with berries etc, grow here in large quantitics and annually find their way to your markets at a season of the year when your soil is covered with snnw or InntpH in F --_ , - v va w ai a .! ¦ ¦ V t 1UVBVM 1 IJ the frosty arms of winter. While our oranges, limes, lemons. pine-apples, guayas, MUMiH, nrs and other TM ui- ui seuii-tropieal fïuits are as familiarly known to very many of the people of your eities as are the fruits of your own raising. Thousands of people from the north with wealth and intelligence have come to Florida to make it their home within the past few nionths, and still they come. No other southern and few if any of the older states is settling up faster or being populated with a better clats of iohabitante than i.s Florida. More transfers of real estáte are weekly spread upon the records at the recorder's office for Orange county at this place, than there is íd very many of the counties of your state containing triple or quadruple the population of this county. Railroads are being constructod ; sugar milis and cotton gins erected ; starch factories put io operatioo, and hundreds of thousands of young orange and lemon trees are ar.nually coming into hearing, and peace and prosperity and great developtnenta are presented upon every hand.