96 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



Some of the most famous old groves are on "black- 

 jack," or third-rate pine lands ; the Belair grove, at San- 

 ford, is one, the De Forest grove another. 



If the "black-jack" soil shows the least tint of yellow 

 (and very little of it does not), it will come out all right 

 if properly fertilized and cultivated. 



It should be noted that red or yellow soils contain iron 

 in a greater or less degree, and this under cultivation 

 combines with tannic and other acids, and so in a few 

 years the yellow soil becomes dark and rich, but the white 

 sands lack iron and will never darken. 



"Hammocks" are tracts of land which, lying rather 

 lower than the surrounding country or else along the 

 banks of the larger lakes and rivers, are constantly moist, 

 and have, therefore, escaped the annual visitation of the 

 destructive fires which every spring sweep from one end 

 to the other of Florida's piney woods. We shall have 

 more to say upon this subject by and by. 



Thus year after year the falling leaves of the hickory, 

 oak, and other deciduous trees which grow so luxuriantly 

 in these damp places remain to decay upon the ground, 

 thus steadily enriching it and forming a rich humus in 

 which a luxuriant undergrow^th springs up, adding more 

 and more to the fertility of the soil by its falling leaves 

 and branches ; such an undergrowth as has no opportunity 

 to establish itself in the piney woods on account of these 

 same annual fires we have mentioned. 



This, we are convinced, is the true origin of the Florida 

 hammocks, where the wild orange groves are invariably 

 found, and where the rankest tropical luxuriance of vege- 

 table life is the most striking characteristic ; through one 

 of these true Florida hammocks it is impossible to make 

 one's way without the constant use of axe and hatchet. 



The writer has seen the giant trees and wondrous wealth 



