PINE LANDS AND HAMMOCKS. 93 



rated districts ; extensive marl beds and the best quality of 

 limestone for manufacturing purposes are also among the 

 preliminary revelations of the geological wealth of Florida. 



The surface soil, to the consideration of which we now 

 return after our excursion "into the depths," is composed 

 all over the State of deposits — "recent" as compared with 

 the age of the underlying rocks — of sand, clay, and marl, 

 which in themselves contain finely comminuted marine 

 shells, coral, phosphates, calcareous materials, salts, de- 

 posited by the sea that once swept over them all, and 

 vegetable humus, which necessarily is the most recent 

 addition of all and is constantly accumulating. 



So varied is the'quality of this soil that, like the State 

 itself, it has been subdivided and classified as follows, in 

 order that it may be spoken of understandingly : First, 

 second, and third-class pine lands ; high hammock, low 

 hammock, and swampy lands ; no less than six grades. 



The first-class pine lands of Florida are not like any 

 other lands found in any of her sister States ; in fact, it is 

 doubtful whether their counterpart exists in any country. 

 Their surface is covered for several inches with a rich, 

 dark, vegetable mold, beneath which lies a chocolate-col- 

 ored, sandy loam several feet in depth, and beneath this 

 again is a substratum of marl, clay or limestone. 



This soil, as may be seen, should be very fertile, and so 

 it is, exceedingly so, and moreover wonderfully durable ; 

 for instance, there are several sections where for eighteen 

 years the land has been cultivated in successive seasons 

 without the addition of a particle of manure, and yet it 

 has yielded, and still yields, four hundred pounds of Sea 

 Island cotton to the acre ; and how much longer these 

 lands will continue thus productive "deponent sayeth 

 not," because no one can tell ; they have not yet begun 

 to faU ofi". 



