United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/25th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 188
Chap. CLXXXVIII.—An Act to encourage the introduction and promote the cultivation of tropical plants in the United States.
Preamble.Whereas in obedience to the Treasury circular of the sixth of September, eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, Doctor Henry Perrine, late American Consul at Campeachy, has distinguished himself by his persevering exertions to introduce tropical plants into the United States: and whereas he has demonstrated the existence of a tropical climate in southern Florida, and has shown the consequent certainty of the immediate domestication of tropical plants in tropical Florida, and the great probability of their gradual acclimation throughout all our southern and southwestern States, especially of such profitable plants as propagate themselves on the poorest soils; and whereas, if the enterprise should be successful, it will render valuable our hitherto worthless soils, by covering them with a dense population of small cultivators and family manufacturers, and will thus promote the peace, prosperity, and permanency of the Union: Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,Grant of land to H. Perrine. That a township of land is hereby granted to Doctor Henry Perrine and his associates, in the southern extremity of the peninsula of East Florida, to be located in one body of six miles square, upon any portion of the public lands below twenty-six degrees north latitude.
When to be located, &c.
Proviso.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said tract of land shall be located within two years from this date, by said Henry Perrine, and shall be surveyed under his direction, by the surveyor of Florida, Provided, That it shall not embrace any land having sufficient quantities of naval timber to be reserved to the United States, nor any sites for maritime ports or cities.
When a patent shall issue.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That whenever any section of land in said tract, shall be really occupied by a bona fide settler, actually engaged in the propagation or cultivation of valuable tropical plants, and upon proof thereof being made to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, a patent shall issue to the said Henry Perrine and his associates.
How and when it shall be forfeited to the U. S.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That every section of land in the tract aforesaid, which shall not be occupied by an actual settler, positively engaged in the propagation or cultivation of useful tropical plants within eight years from the location of said tract, or when the adjacent territory shall be surveyed and offered for sale, shall be forfeited to the United States.
Approved, July 7, 1838.