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GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 173 



way through it. The prevaihng color is cream or light buff, ex- 

 cept that the uppermost inch or two is usually bleached a little by 

 the action of vegetation. In cuts and pits where the whole thick- 

 ness of the sand is exposed it rests sometimes on sandy clay and 

 sometimes on phosphate rock or silicified limestone, the latter some- 

 times protruding a few inches above the surface in boulder-like 

 outcrops without making any perceptible difference in the vegeta- 

 tion.* 



Salamanders abound and gophers, ants, and sundry other bur- 

 rowing animals are common in this type of soil, so that practically 

 every particle of it within a foot or two of the surface must be 

 turned over by them every few years, and this may be a sufficient 

 explanation of its homogeneity. 



The vegetation is nearly always of the high pine land type. Al- 

 though the soil looks very unpromising to one accustomed to clayey 

 soils, it is very easily cultivated, and when properly fertihzed yields 

 very satisfactory returns. Practically all the farming in the lime- 

 sink region, and most of the orange groves in the lake region, are 

 on this kind of soil. 



Cream-colored sand zvith humus. Where the soil just described 

 is protected from fire by being partly surrounded by bodies of water 

 or hammocks (see chapter on vegetation), the forests become much 

 denser (sandy hammocks), and some humus accumulates, making 

 the top soil gray. This phase has been mapped as ''Norfolk sand," 

 "Norfolk fine sand," and "Leon sand, hammock phase;" and it is 

 represented by mechanical analyses 41 and 42 and chemical anal- 

 yses C and Q. Salamanders seem to be absent and other subterra- 

 nean animals scarce, so that the soil is more leached than the typical 

 phase; and comparatively little of it is cultivated. 



Broivn, rusty, and ashy sand. In many places, for example 

 around Dade City, Brandon, Mount Dora, Montverde, and between 

 Bartow and Fort Meade, the loose sand of the uplands is brownish 

 instead of cream-colored. Mechanical analyses 29 and 30 and 

 chemical analysis H, all from near Fort Meade, probably represent 

 this type. In the vicinity of Fort Meade, where the soil is decidedly 



*There is some difference of opinion as to whether this sand is a distinct 

 formation or a residual material from the underlying Tertiary strata, as stated 

 in the chapter on stratigraphy; but from the geographical standpoint that is a 

 matter of little consequence. 



