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Florida 
Florida is mainly a peninsula 350 miles 
long by 60 to 100 miles wide. On the 
north there is an arm, reaching west- 
ward along the Gulf, more than 100 miles 
long and 50 wide, once known as West 
Florida. The extreme length of the state 
from north to south is 450 miles and it 
contains an area of 58,680 square miles, 
of which 4,440 is water. The surface is 
generally level, or slightly undulating; 
but in the northwest it is hilly, or at 
least broken and called hilly; yet none 
of the elevations rise more than 300 feet 
above the level of the sea. 
For the main part the soil is formed 
of calcareous rocks, overlaid with sand, 
clay and drift. No state in the Union 
has so much coast line as Florida (1,150 
miles) and none so many navigable riv- 
ers. Among the rivers navigable for 
steamers are the St. Mary, forming part 
of the boundary between Florida and 
Georgia, and navigable as far as the town 
of St. Mary’s; and the St. Johns, which 
flows into the Atlantic near the northeast 
corner of the state. This river rises in 
the South, and with its tributaries and la- 
goons has more than 1,000 miles of navi- 
gable water. It flows through a series 
of lakes, lagoons and swamps, and for 
150 miles above its mouth has a width of 
two miles. The Indian river is a narrow 
lagoon or sound about 100 miles long. The 
rivers rising in Alabama and flowing 
through Florida are the Perdido, Escam- 
bia and Choctawhatchie. Those rising in 
Georgia are the Appalachicola, Ocklocko- 
nee and Suwanee. Those flowing from 
Lake Okeechobee are Withlacoochee, Peace 
Creek, Caloosahatchiee. Rivers of the in- 
terior are Ocklawatha and Kissimmee. 
The chief harbors of Florida on the 
Atlantic coast are St. Augustine, Fernan- 
do, Port Orange and Jacksonville, and 
on the Gulf coast Key West, Charlotte 
Harbor, Tampa, Cedar Keys, St. Marks, 
Appalachicola and Pensacola. Numerous 
lakes of pure water dot the state, the 
largest of which is Okeechobee, having an 
area of 500 square miles and discharging 
its waters by several outlets into the 
Everglades. The Everglades are swamps 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
full of islands covered with vines and 
shrubbery, and in the rainy season mostly 
covered with water, forming an addition 
to the Lake Okeechobee. There are many 
small islands along the Gulf coast, and 
from the southern end of the peninsula, a 
chain of reefs and islands called quays 
or keys extend in a southwesterly direc- 
tion for 200 miles. Many of the streams 
of Florida are subterranean, having been 
formed by the action of the water in 
wearing the limestone rock, which forms 
so large a part of the sub-stratum of 
Florida soils. 
For agricultural purposes Florida may 
be divided into the Upland region, com- 
prising the northern tier of counties; the 
Northern and Central Florida region, and 
the Treeless and Alluvial region, south of 
a line drawn from Charlotte Harbor to 
Cape Carnival. Again, the state is some- 
times divided into sections designated by 
the natural productions or flora, as fol- 
lows: 
1. The oak, hickory and pine, upland 
region, comprising most of the northern 
tier of counties. 
2. The long-leafed pine region, which 
lies chiefly in Northern and Central Flor- 
ida, dividing it into rolling, flat and hum- 
mock lands. 
3. The pitch pine, a treeless and allu- 
vial region in the southern part of the 
state. 
The hummock lands are small eleva- 
tions or hillocks, rising above the sur- 
rounding swamps and generally covered 
with grass, shrubs or trees. Its surface 
soil is generally underlaid with clay and 
therefore the timber that grows upon it 
is adapted to the conditions described. 
All the fruit trees grown in Florida 
do well on the hummock lands, and it 
was formerly supposed they would not 
succeed on the sandy soils, but this has 
lately been proven a mistake, for by fer- 
tilizing from the marshes, or by the use 
of shells from the sea, or other methods, 
it has been proven that certain kinds of 
fruits, especially oranges, will reach a 
high state of perfection. There are many 
varieties of sandy soil, from the coarse 
sand containing 95 per cent of insoluble 
