GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA lOI 



scarce, and Leguminosae (leguminous plants) seem to be more 

 abundant here than an most other parts of central Florida, 

 which indicates that the soil is not as poor as it might look to a 

 new-comer who had spent most of his life in clayey regions. 



The long-leaf pine iis, and doubtless will long continue to be, 

 an important sou-rce of lumber, fuel, and naval stores. Near some 

 of the phosphate mines it hag been cut off pretty completely to 

 furnish heat for drying the phosphate rock, leaving a very des- 

 olate-looking country, but it comes back as fast as it is allowed 

 to, without any assistance. The wire-grass and other herbage of 

 the pine lands afford an a])undance of free pasturage for cattle. 



Population. This region does not cover enough of any one couni\ 

 to enable us to estimate the density of population ^'ery accurately, 

 but there are probably at least thirty inhabitants per square mile. 

 It includes most of the settlements in Levy and Citrus Counties, 

 from the statistics of which we can approximate the composition 

 and some other characteristics of the population. 



These two counties have no places with over 2,500 inhabitants, 

 and therefore no population classed as urban by the U. S. census, but 

 8."/% of the people were living in the three incorporated towns in 

 191 5. The largest towns in the region at that time were Tarpon 

 Springs, with 1938 inhabitants, Clearwater, with 1932, Inverness, 

 with about 1000 (but not returned separately from the precinct in- 

 cluding the town), Dunnellon 979, Williston 800, Dunedin 429, 

 Anthony 406, and Wildwood 385. (The 1920 census puts Clear- 

 water ahead of Tarpon Springs, but returns for the smaller places 

 have not been published yet). 



In Levy and Citrus Counties in 1910 about 50.1% of the inhabit- 

 ants were native white, 1% foreign white, and 49% negro. At the 

 same time 5.9%' of the native whites, 14.8% of the foreign whites, 

 and 30% of the negroes were illiterate. The illiteracy percentage 

 for foreign whites is considerably higher than it usually is in pri- 

 marily agricultural regions, and probably indicates a considerable 

 number of foreign-born unskilled laborers employed in the phos- 

 phate mines. The foreigners came mostly from Italy, Greece, 

 England, Germany, Canada and Sweden; but of course there is no 

 telling how many of them are fishermen and spongers, living on 

 the coast of these two counties, and therefore entirely outside of 

 the lime-sink region. There is a large colony of Greeks, supported 



