GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 155 



information about them in census reports, for several decades past. 

 However, previous to 1887 most of the counties in central Florida 

 were so large that statistics based on them give a very imperfect 

 idea of conditions in any one region, so that the statistical tallies 

 in the foregoing pages begin with the census of 1890. But some 

 data from earlier censuses for the area as a whole are given in 

 the following chapters. And even if the counties had been reduced 

 to their present size much earlier, the information in the older cen- 

 suses is considerably less detailed than that in recent ones, and the 

 remote past does not concern us as much as the recent past anyway. 



Some of the tables that follow contain the same ratios and per- 

 centages already given in the eight regional tables, but they are 

 arranged in an entirely different manner. In the preceding tables 

 one could follow the development of any phase of agriculture in a 

 given region through three census periods, while in the following 

 ones conditions in different regions at the same time are tabu- 

 lated side by side to illustrate the influence of different environ- 

 ments. There are also a 'number of additional tables to illustrate 

 conditions whose historical aspects are unknown or not considered, 

 such as soil analyses, climatic data, a tree census, illiteracy, schools, 

 religious denominations, relative importance and yifeld per acre 

 of different crops, and animal products of farms. 



In all the statistical tables where different regions are contrasted 

 the highest ratio or percentage for each feature is printed in heav- 

 ier type and the lowest in italics (unless two or more numbers are 

 so nearly equal that it is impossible to decide between them) ; a 

 scheme which assists materially in picking out the salient features 

 of each region and also in locating the best and worst places within 

 our area for any particular thing, such as large and small farms, 

 farm machinery, mules, sheep, bees, cotton, oranges, sugar-cane, 

 etc., 



STRATIGRAPHY 



Although a great deal of geological work has been done in this 

 and other parts of Florida in recent years, our knowledge of strat- 

 igraphic details is still very imperfect, on account of the scarcity 

 of outcrops of rocks that can be identified by their fossils or other- 

 wise. And even if deep wells had been drilled on every square mile 

 and all the strata penetrated by them identified and measured it 

 would still be quite a problem to map the formations, because they 



