GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES. 1 25 
but it is reasonable to assume that the character of the immigration has not 
changed greatly since, and that somewhat similar proportions hold in the other 
counties. 
Of the total area of Marion County, 5 per cent was classed as improved land 
by the census of 1880, and 8.3 per cent by that of 1910. (The increase has 
probably been greater in the other counties in the area.) In 1880 there were 
1434 farms in the county, the value of whose product for the previous year was 
$508,338. The expenditure for fertilizer was only a little over 2 cents per 
acre of improved land, 9 cents per inhabitant, or 74 cents per square mile of 
total area. In 1910 there were 2153 farms, with a product of $1,835,212 (not 
counting live stock, poultry, etc.), and an expenditure for fertilizer of $1.68 
per acre, $5.53 per inhabitant, or $88 per square mile. (At the same time fertil¬ 
izer was used in Citrus County at the rate of 65 cents per acre "or $6.18 per 
square mile, and in Sumter $3.31 per acre or $128 per Square mile, if the census 
figures are accurate.) The enormous increase in the use of fertilizer is of 
course due largely to the extension of cultivation from the rich hammock lands 
to the poorer pine lands. 
The leading crops in Marion County in 1911-12 (just about the time the soil 
survey was made), in order of value, according to the 12th Biennial Report 
of the State Department of Agriculture, were as follows: (Cantaloupes, 
oranges, watermelons, sea-island cotton, velvet beans, corn, tomatoes, beans, 
lettuce, grapefruit, peanuts, sweet potatoes, cabbage, upland cotton, field peas 
(including hay thereof), sugar cane (syrup), cucumbers, egg-plants, (grass) 
hay, squashes, onions, oats, pepper, pears,. peaches, cassava and rye. Of these 
the first made up about 18 per cent of the total and the last about 0.14 per cent. 
With regard to the use of plant names as found in the soil report, 
he notes also that saw-grass is a sedge ( Cladium), and broom sedge 
is a grass (Andropogon). Sword grass may be a species of Iris. 
Cypress is not a hard wood tree. 
