SECOND ANNUAL REPORT—SOILS. 
43 
SOILS. 
ORIGIN. 
The soils of Florida are almost all based upon the sandy 1 forma¬ 
tions of Pliocene and Pleistocene age; and, since the gray Pleistocene 
sand is the most widespread of the surface deposits, it naturally 
forms the soils over the greater portion of the State. The Lafayette 
soils occupy considerable areas in northern and western Florida and 
they often form the subsoil where the Pleistocene sands are thin. 
The Alachua clay and the Pleistocene marls are so thinly covered in 
some parts of Peninsular and West Florida that they form a part of 
the subsoil. In some areas, where erosion has been especially active 
both Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits have been removed, leaving 
the older geological formation exposed to form the soils; but such 
areas are of limited extent, and are comparatively unimportant. In a 
few localities residual materials formed by the weathering of the 
Oligocene formations lie so near the surface that they form a more 
or less important part of the soil or subsoil. 
Other types of soil occupy a large area in the southern part of the 
peninsula and smaller areas in various other parts of the State. These 
are the peat and muck soils which have their greatest development in 
the Everglades, but are found in many other .localities where swamps 
exist. They consist of organic matter mixed with more or less in¬ 
organic material, such as sand and clay. These soils are of recent 
origin and are still being formed, especially over a large area south 
of Lake Okeechobee where the surface is very low and flat and the 
drainage imperfect. 
The Pleistocene sands form the soil in nearly all of peninsular 
Florida and extend over a part of the uplands in northern and western 
Florida. Their occurrence in detail may be gathered from the descrip¬ 
tion of the distribution of the Pleistocene formations. The soils of 
the Lafayette formation are largely confined to the upland areas near 
the northern boundary of the State. They do not form large, un¬ 
broken tracts, but occur in more or less isolated areas where the post- 
Pliocene sands are absent. In many localities the overlying sands are 
•so thin that the Lafayette deposits form an essential part of either the 
soil or the subsoil, even where the surface materials are younger. 
This is the condition in a part of the important tobacco producing area 
in Gadsden County. 
Pleistocene marls and coquina, in a more or less decomposed state, 
form the subsoil at various places along the east coast and along, the 
west coast south of Bradentown. These marl and coquina beds are 
discussed under the head of geology, and their distribution, so far as 
