12 BULLETIX 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 Sanford 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 often is the case with the high pine lands, where the 
hardpan or clay stratum is well beiow the surface, the soil moisture 
probably will percolate below the root area. On the other hand, in 
the flatwoods where the hardpan is tpo 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 growing 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 very fine orange groves on the 
flatwood 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. 
