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 palustyis) 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 oolitic 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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