TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 
VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 
160 
Lower Glades and the saw-grass is less dense than in the Upper Glades. The 
Upper Glades have the deeper muck and much the greater agricultural 
possibilities. The state dredges working near Ft. Lauderdale uncovered 
numerous salt-water shells in the sand at a depth of 4 meters (13 feet) 
below the surface. There are water trails through the Everglades used by 
the Seminole Indians, who frequently traverse them in their dug-out canoes 
during periods of high water. They rarely penetrate the saw-grass of the 
interior, but confine themselves principally to the islands and the timbered 
edges of the Glades and the water channels through which they make their 
way to the east coast when in need of supplies. 
“The origin of the muck soil is, of course, vegetable matter.* There are 
no data for estimating the length of time required for the formation of these 
muck deposits. The whole of the Okeechobee muck lands is covered almost 
exclusively by saw grass. This is a cyperaceous plant of the genus Cladium. 
During the winter and early spring months this dense growth of grass often 
becomes dry enough to burn, and large areas are often burned over. The 
muck soils of Florida, as shown by a later analysis, are rich in nitrogen and 
lime, but are markedly deficient in such mineral constituents as potash 
and phosphoric acid. The presence, therefore, of so large a body of limestone, 
mingled with phosphatic pebbles, is a matter of no mean importance when the 
agricultural future of these lands is considered. A few of these pebbles were 
picked up at the headwaters of the Caloosahatchee and examined for phosphoric 
acid. The mean percentage of phosphoric acid found was 0.697. This region 
has not been prospected at all for phosphate deposits, but it would not be sur- 
prising if they were discovered to exist here in great abundance, as they are 
found from 60 to 100 miles farther west, in the Peace River region.” 
“The question of the subsidence of these soils under cultivation is also one 
of considerable importance. If the organic matter which they contain should 
decay there would, of course, be a marked depression in the level of the soil. 
The oldest portions of the muck land in cultivation have now been tilled for 
about eight years. In these lands where sugar cane was planted it has been 
found that there has been a subsidence of several inches, so that the stubble of 
the sugar cane has been left protruding to this distance above the surface. 
This depression, however, seems to have occurred chiefly in the first two or 
three years of the cultivation, and there seems to have been no such marked 
* Everglades of Florida (Senate Document No. 89), pages 76, 117. 
