GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 26 1 



The expenditure for fertilizers per acre was nearly twenty 

 times as n:5uch as in 1879-80, and the results are shown in the in- 

 creased population, ini]:)roved land, and va^ue of products. By 

 this time the Middle Florida hammock belt had lost its leadership 

 in every particular that the table shows (but doubtless still led in 

 improved land percentage) and the most progressive farming was 

 in the lake region and east coast strip. 



The report of the State census of 1895, although a little pam- 

 phlet of only 2^/ pages, and less than a third of that devoted to 

 agriculture, gives some valuable information about conditions just 

 after the freeze of February, 1895. (See chapter on climate.) 

 This seems to be the first census to give the expenditures for farm 

 labor (to which the value of board furnished laborers is added). 

 As the expenditures and receipts are those for the year 1894, while 

 the number and size of farms are as of the sun-fmer of 1895, when 

 considerable acreage had been abandoned on account of the freeze, 

 the expenditures and receipts per acre are somewhat exaggerated, 

 as was clearly recognized at the time. But probably where a whole 

 farm had been abandoned and there was no one to answer for it. 

 its operations in 1894 were not counted at all, so that it did not 

 affect the ratios per farm or per acre. The amount of improved 

 land showed an .increase over that of 1890, in spite of the ca- 

 lamity. 



There are some omissions and inconsistencies in the returns 

 (perhaps mostly the fault of the printers), so that it is hardly 

 worth while to give statistics for separate regions. The next table 

 therefore gives only the results for central Florida, the rest of the 

 State, and the w^hole State. As far as statistics per farm are con- 

 cerned the rest of the State is practically the northern third ; hvX 

 the vast uninhabited areas of South Florida of course affect the 

 percentage of farmi land and improved land. 



If labor and fertilizers were the only expenses, and every farm 

 occupied by only one family, it w^ould appear that the difference 

 between expenses and receipts, or the value of the labor of the av- 

 erage farm family in a year, was about $546 in central Florida and 

 $553 in the rest of the State; but if we had all the facts central 

 Florida should rank higher in this respect than the rest of the 



