GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 285 



forests or prairies are much more extensive than cultivated fields 

 it is cheaper to fence the crops and give the cattle and hogs free 

 range than it would be to confine the cattle, and the law gives the 

 animals this freedom: in most parts of Florida), some method of 

 improving the road must be adopted if there is much traffic on it. 

 The cheapest road-surfacing material is pine straw (said to have 

 cost about $35 a mile by 1915 prices), which has been used to a 

 considerable extent where there is neither clay nor rock within 

 easy reach. This is ordinarily renewed every year or two. Near 

 sawmills and planing mills sawdust and shavings are often used 

 in the same way. 



In many places, particularly in the lake region, sandy clay oc- 

 curs within a few feet of the surface, and when spread out to the 

 proper thickness and rolled it makes a very good roadbed. Tn sev- 

 eral other regions limestone rock is available, and gives still better 

 results. In the pebble phosphate country a sandy rock that forms 

 part of the overburden in the mines is sometimes used in the same 

 way. Even in the eastern flatwoods and the lake region there are 

 a few deposits of marl near the surface, and that makes as good a 

 road as clay. Near the coasts oyster shells, either from living 

 reefs or from shell mounds, have long been utilized by road-mak- 

 ers, as have other species of shells occurring in the mounds. Be- 

 fore the days of automobiles the shells were usually simply spread 

 out over the surface of the road from time to time and left to be 

 ground up and compacted by wagon wheels. 



Since automobiles became common there has been a great de- 

 velopment of permanent roadways, and where local supplies of 

 rock, clay, etc., are inadequate, brick and asphalt (fig. 2"]^ have 

 been imported from other states or countries in large quantities. 

 At the present time there is perhaps no equal area in the world that 

 has better roads in proportion to population than central Florida. 

 But in the building of highly improved roads in recent years there 

 has been a regrettable tendency to locate them as much as possible 

 along section lines or parallel thereto. This practice doubtless 

 simplifies negotiations with land-owners and requires less mental 

 exertion than adapting the roads to the topography, but it makes 

 them more expensive to build and maintain and wastes the time of 

 people using them (for two sides of a square are over 40% 



