Dwelling in an almost perpetual summer, one would naturally suppose that the climate would prove enervating to the human system. Such is not the fact. In midsummer the weather is of a very pleasant temperature, the nights being uniformly cool, and sultry days, so common in the North, of very rare occurrence. So agreeable are the summers, there is little choice between them and the winters, and many of the oldest settlers prefer the former. Florida, in common with other States of the Union, is sometimes afflicted with drouths, and there is sometimes a superabundance of rain; but, as a general rule, the seasons are regular and well adapted to all the valuable staples of the country. Frequent showers occur during the spring and early summer, and about the first of July the rainy season fairly sets in and continues until the first of October. Although rain falls on nearly every day during this season, it seldom ever rains all day. These rains fall in heavy showers, generally accompanied by thunder and lightning, but are seldom of more than two hours' duration. They generally occur early in the afternoon, leaving for the balance of the day a cloudless sky and a delightfully cool atmosphere. Paradoxical as it may seem, our winters are warmer and our summers cooler than those of the Northern and Western States. The mercury in the thermometer rarely reaches 96° Fahrenheit in midsummer, and at Braidentown, Manatee County, only on two occasions during the past four years has it fallen as low as 38°. The general healthfulness of Florida is proverbial. That its climate is more salubrious than that of any other State of the Union is clearly established by the medical statistics of the army, as well as by the last census returns. The report of the Surgeon General of the United States Army, demonstrates the fact that diseases which result from malaria are of a much milder type in Florida than in any other part of the United States. Among the troops serving in Florida, the number of deaths to the number of cases of remittent fever has been much less than in any other portion of the Union. In the Middle Division of the United States, the proportion is one death to thirty-six cases of remittent fever; in the Northern Division, one to fifty-two; in the Southern Division, one to fifty-four; in Texas, one in seventy-eight; in California, one in one hundred and twenty-two; in New Mexico, one in one hundred and forty-eight; while in Florida, it is but _one in two hundred and eighty-seven_. As a health resort for invalids suffering from pulmonary complaints, Florida stands pre-eminent. Her invigorating, balsamic breezes, with healing on their wings, soon banish the hectic flush from the cheek of the invalid, and health and strength return once more to cheer and gladden the hearts of despairing friends.