A description of Florida lands published by Dr. Byrne in 1860 applies with equal truthfulness at the present time. In every State and Territory in the Union there is a large proportion of barren and poor lands, but the ratio of these lands differ greatly in the different States. Florida has a due proportion of poor lands, but compared with other States, the ratio of her _barren_ and _worthless_ lands is very small. With the exception of the Everglades and her irreclaimable swamp lands, there is scarcely an acre in the whole State of Florida that is entirely worthless, or which cannot be made, under her tropical climate, tributary to some agricultural production. Lands which in a more northern climate would be utterly worthless, will in Florida, owing to her tropical character, yield valuable productions. For example, the poorest pine lands of Florida will produce without fertilizing a luxuriant crop of Sisal hemp, which yields more profit to the acre than the richest land when cultivated in sugar, cotton, and tobacco. So it is with jute and numerous other valuable tropical products that are adapted to the lands that in more northern climates would yield nothing to agriculture. Besides this, there are in Florida no mountain wastes, and most of the land not under cultivation is covered with valuable timber. The classification of lands in common use being based on their elevation and the character of their vegetable growth, does not indicate very fully the character of the soil. There are the hammock, pine, and swamp lands. Then there is the high or light hammock, and the low or heavy hammock. Of pine lands, there are the first, second, and third rate. The characteristic of hammock land as distinguished from pine is in the fact of its being covered with a growth of underbrush and vines, while the pine lands are open. Whenever, then, the land is not so low as to be called swamp, and produces an undergrowth of shrubbery, it is called hammock.