CHAPTER V. 

 LOCATION AND SELECTION OF SOIL. 



ROBABLY the most important factor to the 

 truck gardener is the selection of the soil. True, 

 vegetables are grown in nearly all kinds of soil, 

 but with greatly varying results. Unless the 

 soil be not only rich, but of good depth, and 

 underlaid with a more or less porous subsoil, 

 to admit both water and air, results will not 

 be satisfactory. We have in extreme Southern 

 Florida a number of different kinds of soil, from the deep, rich 

 alluvial soil, better known as muck beds, to the poorest white 

 drifting sands, almost too poor to support any kind of vegetation. 

 It is a fact that less than one per cent of the farming in this 

 entire State is done on any but soil of a very inferior nature. 

 However, close investigation has convinced me that most of the 

 best farm land lies dormant today for want of proper drainage. 

 On first sight it seems as though this could be easily remedied, 

 for although the country is comparatively level, the good land is 

 surrounded by somewhat higher ridges, making drainage more 

 difficult ; and, in addition, the swamps are usually very large, and 

 correspondingly large ditches must be excavated. This necessi- 

 tates the expenditure of more money than can readily be raised by 

 the individual, and must be undertaken by the larger corporations 

 or by the State. 



Pine land, when underlaid by a clay subsoil, gives very fair 

 results; especially is this so if under irrigation by the method 

 better known as the overhead system (see chapter on "Irriga- 

 tion"). South of the Miami River there are among the rocky 

 pine lands lying adjacent to the Atlantic ocean numerous pockets, 

 often many acres in extent, where excellent crops of peppers, 

 tomatoes and eggplants, as well as beans, are grown to perfection. 



