Moreover, the fruit from the pine plants of South Florida need not be plucked till it has matured on its stock. It will therefore come into market in a more mature condition, and of finer flavor than any that can elsewhere be grown. It will bring the highest market prices; and the fruit of this kind that has already been grown, by competent judges is said to be of the best quality. The lands which are adapted to this culture are, indeed, of limited extent; but there are sufficient to supply the home market. These facts, together with the salubrity of the fruit-growing region, must ere long attract attention from the public. Thousands, in that mild and equable climate, might there live and labor, and enjoy a ripe old age, who must soon die, amid the vicissitudes of the climate in the north. Admitting that the pine-apple, on account of risks in transportation and cost in getting to market, should be worth only about one-half the market price in the field, yet an acre of thrifty, well cultivated pines will yield from $1500 to $2000 per annum. At five cents each, the product of an acre of pine-fruit would be $2000. These calculations show the great value of the pine lands and other fruit soil of Tropical Florida. These facts have but to be known, to be understood and appreciated. They indicate the great resources of South Florida, in the soil of its tropical fruit lands, which is a region of country lying some forty miles south of Cape Carnavaral. CHAPTER III. ST. AUGUSTINE AS A PLACE OF RESORT FOR INVALIDS. ADVANTAGES OF CLIMATE. This city enjoys many advantages in respect to climate, which are peculiar. The same may be true of the climate of the Florida peninsula in general. An intelligent correspondent of the Army and Navy Chronicle, in an interesting article, thus writes of the climate of Florida: “Florida, from its position, lying just north of the Tropic of Cancer, and being nearly surrounded by water, would be judged to possess one of the blandest and most equable climates in the world. And such, in fact, for several months in the year, is found to be the case. “In the interior and upper portions, the variations in the annual temperature are considerable--80 and 90 degrees. The diurnal variations are considerable. On the sea-coast and in the lower part of the territory, where regular trade-winds prevail, the temperature is so much less variable, that the islands about capes Florida and Sable are in this respect unexcelled perhaps by any other region of the globe.”