GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA IO9 



Agriculture. On acconnt of its fertile soil this is probably the 

 most extensively cultivated region in central Florida, although the 

 percentage of improved land cannot be estimated, for the reasons 

 already given. But as it probably contains most of the farms in 

 Marion County, the statistics for the average farms in that county 

 ought to represent conditions in the hammock belt pretty well. (If 

 we should add to — or subtract from, as the case may be — the 

 Marion averages the differences between them and those for Levy 

 and Citrus Counties already given, we would probably come still 

 nearer to the actual conditions in the hammock belt, for outside of 

 that belt nearly all the farming in the county is done in the lime- 

 sink region ). 



In 1850 about half the farms in central Florida were in Marion 

 County, and the average farm (or plantation) in the county had 

 169 acres, of which 34.8 were improved. Its land and buildings 

 were worth $1,055, i^s implements and machinery $94, and its live- 

 stock $531. In the next decade there was a great expansion, and 

 the amount of improved land increased more than 70%. In i860, 

 when the ante-bellum plantation system of the South had reached 

 its height, the average Marion County planter owned 450 acres, 

 of which 133.7 '^vere improved, land and buildings worth $4,620, 

 implements and machinery '$205, and live-stock $1,094. At this time 

 considerable sugar was being produced, an industry made possible 

 by the abundance of cheap labor, which does not exist in Florida 

 now.* The Ci\'il War of course made many former slaves farm 

 proprietors, and thus reduced the average size of farms consider- 

 ably; but unfortunately the census did not make any distinction 

 between white and colored farmers until 1900. By 1880 the aver- 

 age farm in the county had shrunk to practically the same size 

 as in the pioneer days of 1850, having 151' acres, with 36.8 im- 

 proved. The land and buildings were then worth $903, implements 

 and machinery $31, and live-stock $204. The expenditure for fer- 

 tilizers the previous year was 86 cents per farm or a little over 

 2 cents per improved acre. 



Agricultural conditions at the next three U. S. censuses arc 

 shown in more detail in Table 3. 



*But for this difficulty tea and silk could probably be produced here too. 



