GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA IQ^ 



Brevard Co. Depth 8 inches. Soil mostly sand, but underlaid 



at no great /lepth by shell marl. 



t 



East Coast Strip 



Z (2108). Crest of outermost dune, about 10 feet high, about 

 a mile south of Melbourne Beach, Brevard Co. (fig. 33). Depth 

 6 inches. A fine sand with finely divided shell fragments. 



The analyses of these last twelve samples are given in Table 18. 

 The moisture is that retained by the soil after drying in the open 

 air for several weeks in the dry season, and the volatile matter in- 

 cludes both organic substatices (the nitrogen in which is determined 

 separately) and carbon dioxide liberated from limestone, which 

 amounts to considerable in some of the samples. (Any one suf- 

 ficiently interested can determine approximately from the lime per- 

 centages just how much of the volatile matter is carbon dioxide.) 

 The iron and alumina are combined, on account of the difficulty 

 of separating them, and soda, sulphur, magnesia, manganese, etc., 

 are omitted entirely, because they were not regarded as of suf- 

 ficient importance to justify the labor of determining them. 



Comments on the Chemical Analyses 



In the first three analyses, made by the acid digestion method, 

 A, from mixed red oak and pine woods, has more potash than any 

 other central Florida soil on record (and the comparison might 

 be extended to the whole State, as long as we have no analyses of 

 the alluvial soils along the Apalachicola River). This soil sup- 

 ports a large proportion of deciduous trees, while on that repre- 

 sented by C, which has less than a third as much potash, the vege- 

 tation is nearly all evergreen. Sample O is probably very similar 

 to C, but the analysis shows considerably less potash on account 

 of the different method used. The highest potash percentages in 

 the analyses made by Mr. Heimburge.r are in the calcareous ham- 

 mock soils from near Ocala and Mcintosh, where deciduous trees 

 greatly predominate. 



Sample R, taken from red oak woods with no evergreens, would 

 almost certainly show more potash than A does if analyzed by the 

 acid digestion method, but the A. O. A. C. method does not do jus- 

 tice to the potash. In fact its indications with respect to this con- 



