178 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY I3TH ANNUAL REPORT 



tween Crystal River and Homosassa. As most of this soil is within 

 a few inches of sea-level, and remote from settlements, it is not 

 utilized much if at all. 



Many if not most of the low hammocks, particularly in the Gulf 

 hammock region, are evidently on marly soil, called "Parkwood 

 clay loam," etc. This contains a large proportion of calcium car- 

 bonate, and its texture is shown by mechanical analyses i to 3. A 

 good deal of it is under intensive cultivation, for example near Cole- 

 man, and also near Lake Jessup, if that is properly classed as marly 

 soil. 



WET soils 



Wet prairies, ponds, etc. In the Gulf hammock region and the 

 three other flatwoods regions there are many areas depressed a few 

 inches or feet below the general le.vel, and filled with water in wet 

 seasons. Some of these contain pond cypress and other woody 

 plants, but a great many are treeless, and known as prairies, or 

 sometimes as "sand soaks." The soil differs little from that of 

 the surrounding flatwoods, except in being saturated with water 

 much of the time and having a little peat or muck overlying it and 

 more or less mixed with it. Some such areas have been mapped in 

 the soil survey of Pinellas County as "water and grass." Their 

 present agricultural value is almost negligible. 



Peat. In the lake region and less frecjuently elsewhere there 

 are many deposits of peat, often ten feet deep or more. They have 

 been described in considerable detail in the 3rd Annual Report, 

 which contains a table showing the ash and moisture content and a 

 few other features of many samples from various parts of the 

 State.* Some of our peat, particularly around Lake Panasoffkee, 

 is quite calcareous, but all, as far as known, is low in potash. The 

 vegetation on it may be either swamp, marsh, or prairie. 



All peat needs to be drained before it can be cultivated, and very 

 little of the deep peat in central Florida is situated so that cultiva- 

 tion is profitable at present. An area of several hundred acres 

 along the Ocklawaha River southeast of Ocala was drained seven 

 or eight years ago by diverting the river, and part of it put under 

 cultivation. Some shallow peat or muck is both richer and more 

 easily drained, and therefore better adapted for agricultural pur- 



*This table is reprinted in the 6th Annual Report, pp. 59-62. 



