PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT. 
215 
PEAT IN FLORIDA. 
Conditions in Florida are almost ideal for the formation of 
peat. The topography of the state is decidedly immature, there be¬ 
ing very few evidences of recent surface erosion, especially on 
the peninsula. There are many times more lakes in Florida than 
in all other coastal plain states combined, and most of these lakes, 
quite unlike those of the glaciated region, seem to have been formed 
by the solution of underlying limestone (never by the damming 
up of streams by drift), and have no streams carrying sediment into 
them. Most of the streams carry no appreciable quantity of sedi¬ 
ment, anyway, and there is only one river in the State which is very 
muddy all the time. The very long coast line (considerably over 
1000 miles in length), and the general flatness of the country near 
the coast, favor the development of estuaries. The St. Johns 
River, for instance, is an estuary for a distance of about ioo miles 
from its mouth. 
The soil being mostly sand, very little of the rain runs off as it 
falls; most of it soaking into the ground immediately, to reappear 
gradually in swamps in the lowlands, or in large springs in the 
more calcareous portions of the state. For this reason the streams 
which rise within the state do not fluctuate much, and are con¬ 
sequently bordered by peat deposits in many places. 
Finally, the rainfall is ample, and so distributed through the 
seasons that most of it falls during the warmest months, thus 
balancing the evaporation to a considerable extent. To illustrate 
this point, the statistics of the average monthly and annual tempera* 
ture and rainfall at Eustis, Lake County, are subjoined. Eustis is 
near the geographical center of the State, and the figures for it are 
probably as typical for the whole State as those of any other one 
station which might be selected. The following statistics, cover¬ 
ing a period of 13 years, from 1890 to 1903, are taken from Bul¬ 
letin Q of the U. S. Weather Bureau, published in 1906. 
MONTHS 
Jan. 
Feb. Mar. 
■I 
Apr. 
May 
June 
July 
Aug. 
Sep. 
Oct. 
Nov 
Dec. 
Annual 
MEAN TEMPERATURE-(degrees Fahrenheit) 
580 
610670 
70 o 
770 
810 
83 o 
83 o 
8O0 
73 o 
66" 
6O0 
72 o 
TOTAL RAINFALL-(inches). 
A 
1 I 
3 . 72 . 9 ^ 2.0 
3.1 
6.4 
6.9 
6.5 
8.0 
3.2 
1.6 
2.2 
49.6 
It will be noticed that over half the total rainfall comes in the 
four warmest months, June to September. This is approximately 
true throughout Florida, and in many other parts of the eastern 
United States where pine forests prevail. 
