12 BULLETIN 462, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



organic material varies from almost nothing to 14 feet, with the 

 greatest depth in the lands adjacent to Lake Okeechobee in the central 

 part of the glades. This area may be of importance from an irriga- 

 tion standpoint after the drainage works are completed, but until that 

 time little authentic information will be available. However, consid- 

 erable areas of the Everglades are cultivated at the present time in 

 narrow strips along the canals which have been constructed, and some 

 of this land has been irrigated by both overhead-spray and surface 

 methods. The light organic material dries out quite rapidly if the 

 water plane is lowered sufficiently. 



The State also includes a large acreage of muck lands along many 

 of the large rivers and adjacent to the lakes. Only a small part of 

 this land has been drained artificially and used for cultivation, al- 

 though there are considerable areas under cultivation in isolated 

 spots, as, for instance, along the St. Johns Eiver in the Sanf ord dis- 

 trict, and along the shores of Lake Apopka in Orange County. Prob- 

 ably the largest single drainage project in muck soils, excluding the 

 Everglades, is at Felsmere, a few miles west of the Atlantic Ocean. 



A type of soil closely allied to the muck soils is the so-called low 

 hammock or " cabbage-palmetto hammock " lands. 1 These lands 

 usually are very rich and require more or less drainage. Throughout 

 the State many of the best trucking sections are located on this type 

 of land. This soil may or may not be underlain with hardpan. 



It will be noted that the few main types of soil discussed above 

 are widely different in their characteristics. In these differences 

 should be found one explanation for the diversified methods used in 

 applying water to. the crops. If the surface soil is very loose and 

 sandy, as of'ten is the case with the high pine lands, where the 

 hardpan or clay stratum is well be'low the surface, the soil moisture 

 probably will peroolate below the root area. On the other hand, in 

 the flatwoQds where the hardpan is too close to the surface the soil 

 has very little storage capacity, will flood easily, and in time of dry 

 weather, will dry out rapidly. It is claimed by expert orange grow- 

 ers that a hardpan at a depth of 5 to 7 feet is the best condition for 

 the grooving of citrus fruits, while a hardpan at a depth of 2 to 3 

 feet often is regarded as an ideal condition for trucking. Although 

 this is generally true, there are some veay fine orange groves on the 

 flatwaod type of lands, and there are large acreages of citrus fruits 

 in Lee and De Soto Counties, while many acres of truck are grown on 

 the high pine and high hammock types of soil. Numerous fine 

 groves and truck gardens flourish on the low hammock types all 

 through the peninsula. 



1 The " cabbage-palmetto hammock " lands derived their name from the fact that their 

 original growth contained a preponderance of cabbage palmetto, although there usually is 

 a very dense undergrowth associated with the palmetto. 



