From Cairo the party returned to Waycross and proceeded to Jacksonville, Fla., where the Florida Agricultural Society was addressed on the subject of cane and cassava culture in Florida. A synopsis of the address is as follows:

CANE AND CASSAVA CULTURE IN FLORIDA.

By H. W. WILEY.

The problems connected with the sugar and starch products are four or five in number.

First of all, the soil is to be considered, and therefore agricultural interests should pay some attention to staple crops-that is, crops that have a market the year round, and can be preserved and marketed at any time. Sugar and starch are types of such crops. These substances take absolutely nothing from the soil; they are fabricated by the plant from the atmosphere and water; hence the sale of such products does not tend to impoverish the soil.

The soils of Florida are largely of a sandy nature-that is, they have been deposited from water; they are typically different from the soils of the great Northwest, which were produced by the grinding effect of moving icebergs, and represent the richest soils, probably, in the world. Sandy soils are not suitable for producing wheat, for instance, but they are well adapted to producing sugar and starch. In Florida it is more a question of climate than of soil, since, with a favorable climate, scientific agriculture will produce a crop from almost any kind of soil.

The second problem to be considered is that of fertilizers. Perhaps there is no State more favorably situated than Florida in respect to fertilizers. You have here inexhaustible deposits of phosphate. In the leguminous crops which grow here, namely, peas, beans, alfalfa, and beggar-weed grass, you have a most valuable means of assimilating nitrogen from the air. In cotton seed, fish scrap, and other animal refuse you have access to large stores of nitrogen. Through your seaports stores of fertilizing materials, such as nitrate of soda and potash salts, can be brought from South America and Germany. It would be hard to find any other portion of our country where fertilizers could be sold more cheaply than in this State.

CHARACTER OF THE MARKET.

The third problem is the character of the market. This country is the greatest sugar and starch consumer in the world. We use more than 2,000,000 tons of sugar annually. Of this quantity, before the Spanish war, we made only about 300,000 tons-about one-seventh of all.

Since the Spanish war we have acquired Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, all of which give us large additional quantities of sugar. This year we will produce about 100,000 tons of beet sugar, so that at the present time it may be said that we produce about one-third of all the sugar we consume; but still there is a vast foreign market which we might supply with the home product. There is no danger, therefore, of overstocking our home market with increased sugar production, nor is there danger of the beet sugar driving the cane sugar out of the market. For many purposes, as, for instance, the manufacture of sirup, beet sugar is unsuitable, and there will always be a demand for all the cane sugar that can be made.

The sugar crop of the whole world for the present year is about 10,000,000 tons, of which nearly 7,000,000 are made from the sugar beet.

THE SUGAR BEET.

The sugar beet can not, however, be grown in Florida profitably. Here you must depend on the sugar cane for sugar and upon the cassava and potato for starch. From starch glucose can also be made, and it seems to me that in the near future the glucose industry will pass from the indian-corn belt to the cassava and potato belt. In one particular industry Florida and the southern parts of Georgia and Alabama stand preeminent, and that is the manufacture of table sirup from sugar cane. It is important, however, to secure uniform grades to hold the markets of the world, and this can only be accomplished by mixing together the products of small farmers or by the establishment of central factories, where the cane grown in the neighborhood can be manufactured under standard conditions.

By the development of these great industries, sugar and starch making, including table sirups, untold wealth will in the near future flow into Florida. From by-products of the factories immense quantities of cattle food can be obtained, both from sugar cane and the starch-producing plants. Thus a dairy industry can be established in connection with sugar and starch making, which will add much to the wealth of the State.

From Jacksonville the party returned to Brunswick, Ga., where a banquet was given by the board of trade at the Oglethorpe Hotel, after which a reception was tendered at the Phoenix Club. The question of the development of the sugar-cane and cassava industries was informally discussed at this reception by the leading business men of Brunswick.

From Brunswick the party proceeded to Waycross, where it was met by the board of trade of that city and where samples of canes, gathered from different parts of the locality, were inspected. The magnitude of these canes is best shown by the photograph taken at Waycross, showing a number of gentlemen most interested in the industry and the size of the canes typical of the growth secured in the immediate locality. (Pl. VI, fig. 1.)

At Waycross one of the best of the small mills for making sirup was inspected, viz, the mill of Mr. Hatcher, about 1 mile southwest of the town. This mill is a small one, operated with a single mule as power, and is best illustrated by referring to Pl. VI, fig. 2.

The method of feeding the cane to this mill is shown in Pl. VII, figs. 1 and 2.

The evaporator, which is a single iron kettle set in masonry, is shown in Pl. VIII, fig. 1.

The structure of the furnace at Mr. Hatcher's mill, which is the best type of this character of furnace, is seen in Pl. VIII, fig. 2.

One of the most interesting places visited near Cairo was the thoroughly primitive establishment of Capt. E. A. Vanlandingham. It was already growing dark on our arrival, and thus an opportunity was afforded of seeing this quaint factory in its most picturesque state, viz, illuminated by a torch of "lightwood." This method of illumination is the one universally practiced in the old-fashioned establishment represented in Pl. IX.

It must be admitted that some of the best sirup which has been brought to our attention has been manufactured in the simple way illustrated in the figure. Of course, the quantities that can be made in a single kettle are limited, and there can be but little commercial importance attached to goods manufactured in this way. For the supply of the farmer himself and his neighbors, however, it is more than likely that this method of manufacture will continue to exist for a long while, and, in fact, there seems to be no necessity or desire that it should ever entirely pass away.

A similar establishment is also represented in Pl. X, which is also interesting in being the property of a colored man, William Lomax, living near Cairo, Ga. The scene is thoroughly characteristic, and represents at its best the rural life of this region when the season for sirup making is at its height.

THE SOIL.

Geologically the soils in southeastern South Carolina on which sugar cane is grown lie principally on the formations known as Lafayette and Marine Pliocene and Miocene. Agriculturally they are classed as sand soils, and the natural timber growth originally found on them was almost exclusively longleaf pine. These soils, as is well known, have a low fertility and require generous fertilization to produce paying crops.

The same soils prevail in southern and southwestern Georgia, while in Florida, without any pronounced difference in the appearance of the soils, the geological formations are chiefly Marine Miocene in the northern part of the peninsula and Marine Pliocene in the southern and interior central regions.

The Lafayette formation is composed of distinctive orange-colored sands and clays, sometimes interbedded with gravel or interspersed with pebbles. The formation is overlaid by the alluvions of small streams, by æolian sands, and in some places by wave-washed débris. The overlay is also often composed of the characteristic clays, sands, and gravels of the Columbia formation, especially in proximity to large streams. This area has also been described by the names "orange sand," "drift," "quaternary," and "southern drift."

The Lafayette formation in Georgia is overlaid for thousands of square miles with the sands of the Columbia formation, covered originally, and still to a great extent, with longleaf pines. A typical soil on the Suwanee River, between Hamilton and Columbia counties, was found to have the following formation:

Throughout large areas in Florida and, to a less extent, in Georgia and South Carolina, in low, swampy localities, the soil has become overlaid with vegetable deposits of a humus nature. These vegetable soils are deficient in mineral plant foods, but become very fertile when properly drained and fertilized. For a more detailed geological account of the soils of the localities referred to, Bulletin No. 83 of the U. S. Geological Survey may be consulted.

A valuable contribution to the study of the soil of Georgia is also found in the Tenth Census Report, vol. 6, on the cotton production of the State of Georgia, by R. H. Loughridge. This report contains an agricultural map of Georgia, showing the distribution of the various kinds of soils in the State. A similar map for South Carolina is found in the Report of the Tenth Census, vol. 6, a report on the cotton production of South Carolina, by Harry Hammond. A similar map is also given in the same volume for the State of Florida, being a report on the cotton production of Florida, by Eugene Allen Smith. A study of these maps, with the remarks made thereon, together with the analyses of the soils which follow, will give a fair idea of the agricultural possibilities of the States mentioned.

NOTES ON THE SOILS.

In the table of analyses of soils which follows the localities in which the samples were taken are also given. Some additional notes have been furnished in regard to some of the samples, which will be of interest. For these notes I am indebted to Capt. D. G. Purse, of Savannah.

DUKE STATION, FLA.-SAMPLES NOS. 22646–22647.

The top soil is in the top of the bag and the subsoil in the bottom of bag, with a string in the center to keep them separate. The water in this locality is soft, and the land is what is classed as high flat woods, sloping to the north. The field from which this sample was taken consists of about 40 acres and has been under cultivation for about fifteen or twenty years. No fertilizer was used until this year, when a cheap manure, consisting of rock phosphate, kainit, and cotton-seed meal, thoroughly mixed together, was employed. Recently a little compost was applied. The crops that have been raised in this field are corn, cotton, and sugar The railroad runs through this field and the cut is from 1 to 5 feet deep, and there is quicksand in it in wet weather. No rocks or stones in land.

cane.

GRIFFING STATION, FLA.-SAMPLES NOS. 22648–22649.

Prepared in the same manner as samples Nos. 22646-22647. The land is high flat woods, slightly rolling. Sample taken from land sloping north and south, with ditch between. Wells to 10 feet deep; soft water. This sample of soil is from a virgin field, planted about two months ago in peaches. The land has been plowed but once. Fertilizer has never been used. Land free from rocks and stones.

Samples Nos. 22650-22651 are from Milepost 38 and taken from virgin soil.