The school lands of Florida--five hundred and seventy thousand acres--are subject to entry at from one dollar and twenty-five cents to seven dollars per acre, according to quality and location. The swamp lands--eight and a half million acres--belonging to the State on the 1st of May, 1882, are graded in price according to the number of acres, varying from one dollar per acre for a tract of forty acres down to seventy-five to seventy cents per acre for tracts of six hundred and forty acres and over. The Disston Syndicate paid twenty-five cents per acre for four million acres of swamp land, in bodies of ten thousand acres each. The commutation price of United States lands is one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Unimproved lands in the hands of private parties are selling at from five to fifteen dollars per acre; improved land at from twenty to fifty dollars per acre, the value depending on location, latitude, improvements, etc. There are also large tracts of land in Florida known as "Spanish grants," which are chiefly owned by non-residents, and which can be purchased at reasonable prices. [Illustration: SCENE IN A SOUTH FLORIDA HAMMOCK--_Page 28._] Governor Bloxham recently stated that the present financial condition of Florida is a fit subject for congratulation. There is at all times money in the Treasury to pay accrued liabilities, while the amount of the bonded debt is only one and a quarter millions, and the assessed value of the property of the State is thirty-seven millions. The condition of our public schools is decidedly progressive. There are at this time over twelve hundred schools in the State, and last year a fund of $139,000 was raised to support them. Places of worship may be found in all our settlements; not gorgeous edifices, with steeples and spires pointing heavenward, but unpretentious and comfortable structures, in which all denominations of Christians assemble to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. The Methodists are the most numerous. Next in point of numbers, the Baptists of different grades of shell, from hard to soft, may be enumerated. Then come the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Campbellites, and Catholics, with a slight sprinkling of other denominations by way of variety. The religious status of the population of Florida, like the climate, is rather above the average of other sections of the Union. There is an indescribable element in the climate of Florida which is conducive of religious fervor. Several immigrants from the North and West, whose piety never cropped out until their arrival in Florida, have been suddenly seized with a call to preach. In some parts of South Florida, local preachers are nearly as numerous as laymen, and it is often highly amusing to hear them expound the Scriptures, and see them wrestle with theology.