SOIL; FERTILIZERS. 
Florida is not only a new country so far as development and 
settlement are concerned but it is new geologically. No strata 
are known within its borders that are older than the Tertiary, 
and much of it belongs to what the older geologists called the 
Recent. And throughout a large part of the state there is a 
sort of unfinished appearance, as though its creation had been 
begun late in the week and Saturday night had come on before 
it was done. An acquaintance of mine from Illinois came to the 
west coast of the state a good many years ago and was very 
much disappointed and in his disgust he declared that Florida 
possessed ‘‘A soil of unsurpassed sterility.” 
I have often thought of what he said and wished that the state 
could have been born back in the Silurian or Carboniferous 
epochs. However, those who have come here to make their 
homes find that with proper treatment this poor, sandy soil 
can be made to produce wonderfully. Some time away back in 
geological history, probably when most of what now forms the 
state was under the sea, the sands along the New England coast 
were carried southward by the cold return current of the Atlantic 
and deposited along the shores of the southern states and over 
the greater part of what was to be Florida. This sand is siliceous 
and is practically destitute, in a natural state, of any plant 
food whatever. It has been worked over, to some extent, by 
the action of the wind and sea. 
Shortly after the elevation of this sand above sea level the 
Georgia Pine (Pinus palustris) began to invade the region from 
the north, and the Caribbean Pine (Pinus caribaea) came, most 
likely, from the south, the seeds having been carried in by the 
Gulf Stream. 
Quite a large area of the southeastern part of the state is com- 
posed of soft, mostly odlitic limestone which forms the rim of 
the Everglades. The rock generally comes to the surface and 
is perforated everywhere with pot-holes which are filled with 
sand. The lowlands of the southern part of the state are com- 
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