GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 143 



I 



The marked variations between different census periods are not 

 easy to explain, but are probably due largely to changes in the num- 

 ber of orange groves and truck farms, which greatly affect the av- 

 erage number of cattle, etc., per farm. At all three censuses, how- 

 ever, this region leads all the others in number of cattle per /arm. 



The leading crops in 1909 were oranges, grape-fruit, "vegeta- 

 bles," corn, sweet potatoes, hay, and Irish potatoes ; and the princi- 

 pal animal product beef cattle. In 1913-14 the order of value of 

 crops was oranges, grape-fruit, corn, sweet potatoes (grass) hay, 

 Irish potatoes, egg-plants, cane syrup, beans, celery, cabbage, vel- 

 vet beans (including hay), and watermelons; and in 1917-18 or- 

 anges, corn, Irish potatoes, grape-fruit, "native" hay, sweet pota- 

 toes, syrup, cabbage, pineapples, cowpeas (and hay), and straw- 

 berries. 



10. THE EAST COAST STRIP • 



(Figs. 29-34. Soil analyses 46-51, N, Z.) 



This includes the islands and barrier beaches of the east coast, 

 and a narrow strip of mainland averaging only a mile or two in 

 width, a total land area in Volusia and Brevard Counties of about 

 500 square miles. It extends both north and south of our limit? 

 a considerable distance without much change. The boundary be- 

 tween this and the adjacent flatwoods is not always sharp, but is 

 marked for a considerable part of the distance by a line of ancient 

 dunes of white sand. Near the "head" (north end) of the Indian 

 River the dunes are two or three miles back from salt water, with 

 low hammocks and flatwoods east of them scarcely distinguishable 

 from some much farther inland. And Merritt's Island, although 

 presumably built up in comparatively recent times by the gradual 

 shifting eastward of barrier beaches, has large areas of flatwoods 

 very similar to those of Osceola County, except for containing no 

 long-leaf pine (a tree which is hardlv ever found on islands of any 

 kind). 



Geology and Topography. Geologically the region is very young, 

 having probably nothing older than Pleistocene very near the sur- 

 face. The material is mostly sand, but there are shells and shell 

 fragments mixed with it in many places, sometimes predominating 

 and hardened into coquina rock (fig. 30). 



