USA > Florida > Florida, 1513-1913, past and future; four hundred years of wars and peace and industrial development > Part 10
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The confidence manifested in the board of health by state officials and by citizens throughout the state, is marked evidence of its effi- ciency. The outbreak of disease as epidemic or beyond the control of local authorities, is reported immediately to the State Health Officer and his orders are obeyed implicitly and almost blindly by those whom they affect.
The operations of the board are financed from a tax of one-half mill levied upon all the assessable property in the state. This yields an annual income of about one hundred thousand dollars. The one thing lacking to secure the highest efficiency and usefulness of the board to the state and its people is the active and intelligent coopera- tion of these people. To secure this a campaign of education has been waged for years, and its beneficial results are being demonstrated in the constant betterment of sanitary and health conditions everywhere in Florida.
CHAPTER V POPULATION AND GROWTH
I ENCREASING industrial prosperity is indicated by growth in population quite as accurately and almost as quickly as the thermometer shows variations of temperature. The converse of the statement would illustrate the fact with equal exactness that indus- trial opportunity invites and draws population and capital as they are needed for development. Nowhere has the fact been more fully demonstrated than in Florida.
Spanish occupation of Florida territory discouraged its industrial growth, although the early Castilian adventurers pronounced it "the richest country in the world." Two hundred and fifty years after Ponce de Leon landed for the first time on the shores of the new con- tinent, the area now known as Florida contained a population of hardly more than seven thousand, most of them fighting men in the garrisons at St. Augustine and Pensacola. This total makes no count of the native Indians remaining at that time. At the same period the English settlements along the Atlantic coast, as far north as Cape Cod, most of them dating their beginnings less than one hun- dred and fifty years before, numbered three million souls.
As Spanish control gradually lost its hold upon American terri- tory, prosperity and increasing population followed. With its tem- porary return, the settlers abandoned this for other sections more favored politically. With the final repression of Indian aggressions, opportunity in Florida attracted an increasing population, and when the immediate effects of the Civil war had been overcome, the real dawning of prosperity smiled upon the state and uncovered its resources to the world.
DECENNIAL ENUMERATIONS
The population of Florida has shown large increase at each de- cennial period since the state became a part of the United States. The following tabulation indicates the various enumerations by the Fed-
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eral Government, also the density of population-the number of per- sons to each square mile of land territory-at each ten-year period.
YEAR
POPULATION DENSITY
1830
34,730
.6
1840
54,477
1.0
1850
87,445
1.6
1860
140,424
2.5
1870
187,748
3.4
1880
269,473
4.9
1890
391.422
7.1
1900
528,542
9.6
1910
752,619
13.7
The percentage of increase of population from 1890 to 1900 was 35; between 1900 and 1910 it was 42.4, a percentage greater than that of any other southern state for the same period and greater than that of any other state east of the Mississippi river. But the increase during the latter decade was not uniform throughout the period, as almost two-thirds of it came between 1905 and 1910. Esti- mating the increase of population since the enumeration of 1910 as the ratio which prevailed during the last five of the ten years, the popula- tion of Florida at the close of the year 1913, was approximately 850,000. But the ratio of growth in population during the first one- quarter of the present decade has been greater than at any time dur- ing the previous history of the state, and it is a safe prediction that by the next published census report in 1920 Florida will have in excess of one million inhabitants.
FLORIDA'S POPULATION DENSITY
By the census of 1910 Florida, the twenty-first in the list of states in area and the second of all east of the Mississippi river, ranked thirty- second in population and thirty-seventh in the density of its popula- tion. By that enumeration Florida was shown to have a permanent population of 752,619, scattered over a land territory of 54,861 square miles, or 35,111,040 acres. By these statistics the average density of population was 13.7. Eleven states, by the same census, had more sparsely settled territory. These were North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Oregon.
Comparing Florida with some of the more densely populated states,-if this state had the density of population equal to that of
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Ohio, it would have 6,419,000 inhabitants; if it were equal to that of Massachusetts, it would have 22,976,000; if it were equal to that of Rhode Island, it would have 27,897,000 and were it as thickly settled as the District of Columbia, it would have more than three hundred millions, or three times the present population of the entire United States.
SECTIONAL DISTRIBUTION
Still using the Census Bureau reports of 1910 as a basis, the dis- tribution of Florida's population shows somewhat remarkable results as to the settlement of various sections of the state. The sixteen coun- ties west of the Suwanee river cover 14,468 square miles, an area equal to that of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. This western section contains approximately twenty-six per cent of the area of the state and 238,902 inhabitants, or thirty-two per cent of its population and has an average density of 16.5.
Middle Florida contains twenty-four counties and covers an area of 22,995 square miles, greater than the combined area of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. It includes 42.3 per cent of the land sur- face of the state and a population of 440,525, or 58.5 per cent of the enumeration of 1910, giving a density of 19.2 persons to the square mile.
The vast area of Southern Florida, including the Everglades, covers the seven counties of Manatee, De Soto, St. Lucie, Lee, Palm Beach, Dade and Monroe. Its area is 17,398 square miles, greater than that of New Hampshire and New Jersey combined. It contains 73,222 inhabitants, or 9.5 per cent of the state's population, with an average density per square mile of 4.2 persons.
URBAN AND RURAL, POPULATION
Florida's distribution of population in cities and rural districts establishes the fact that it is essentially an agricultural state. The urban population in 1910 was 267,867, or 34.5 per cent of the total, which resided in cities of more than one thousand population. Fifty- five cities in the state had a population exceeding this figure; twenty- eight had more than two thousand; twenty-one had more than three thousand; twelve had more than four thousand, and ten had more than five thousand each. These ten cities, in the order of their population. were Jacksonville, with 57,699; Tampa, 38,524; Pensacola, 22,982; Key West, 19,945; West Tampa, 8,258; Gainesville, 6,183; St.
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Augustine, 5,494; Miami, 5,471; Lake City, 5,032; and Tallahassee, 5,018.
The population of Florida is divided unequally between the two principal races. In the proportion to the total, the white race predomi- nates and each succeeding census report shows it to be increasing in its percentage. By the census of 1880 the white race formed 52 per cent of the total population; in 1890 the percentage was 57; in 1900 it was 63, and in 1910 approximately 68 of each 100 were white. This increasing proportion of the white race is due not to decreasing numbers of negroes in the state, but to the fact that immigration from other sections of the United States and from foreign countries has been mainly of the white race both to the cities and to the farms and groves.
OUTSIDE INFLUENCES
The increase in population from 1890 to 1910 was more than 361,000, or 92 per cent. A large portion of this increase was supplied by the migration of agriculturists from the North and West and from other southern states. A considerable part of it also was to the cities from other sections of the country. Many communities in Florida have much larger proportions of residents born elsewhere than of native Floridians. This is particularly true of the younger cities, which are making most rapid strides in population and commercial enterprise. Few towns or cities in Florida can be characterized as typically Southern. Many of their more important business enter- prises are dominated by capital and men from other sections, and to this class is due much of the vigorous development of the resources of the state.
Along the east coast of the state many of the fruit and vegetable farms are owned by a resident English population, and an appreciable percentage of the entire population of the state is British born. A colony of several thousand Greeks in the western part of the state dominate the Florida sponge fisheries and the race is represented in all the more thickly settled communities in the state.
The exact number of Indians remaining in Florida is uncertain, owing to the difficulty of reaching their abodes in the southern part of the state and also because of their distrust of the white race and their natural reticence, which make almost impossible the gathering of reliable statistics from them. It is believed that the two tribes of Seminoles in the Everglades include not more than four hundred men, women and children of all ages.
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The negro race is the chief source of unskilled labor in Florida, as in all southern states. It is essentially the servant class for domes- tic service. To a small extent, individuals of the race have made some progress in the professions of medicine and as ministers of the gospel. Probably less than a score colored men are members of the Florida bar as practicing lawyers, and the success of these few has not been marked by high attainments. Many negroes have acquired comfortable homes and some degree of education. A few have accu- mulated wealth by business enterprise to the extent of a moderate independence. As a rule the negroes of Florida are more comfortably situated, more prosperous and contented than in any other southern state.
TRANSIENT POPULATION
The facts already given apply to Florida's permanent population. But the peninsular state has other hundreds of thousands who spend from three to eight months of each year in their winter homes in vari- ous parts of the state, but who are citizens of northern or western states or of foreign countries. With the approach of winter's cold they come regularly each year to Florida, open their homes here and remain until the following April or even July. Many of them come merely to escape the severities of other climates, but an increasing number have large business investments and interests in the state; they own and cultivate great citrus fruit groves or truck farms, from which they receive substantial returns in the early northern markets.
The number of such semi-transient citizens, many of whom pay taxes upon large and valuable properties in the state, is difficult to estimate accurately, but records preserved and formulated by the great transportation companies entering the state, make the number of these annual visitors not less than two hundred thousand.
The opening of the tourist resorts, great and small, throughout the state about the first of December, marks the beginning of a tre- mendous influx of visitors, which reaches its highest tide in January and February and continues until April. It brings into the state every year from two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand tourists, who remain from a week to three months. These with the visitors who own property and make the state their home for practically one half the year, swell the winter population of Florida by at least half a million persons.
CHAPTER VI FLORIDA'S SOILS
Vol. I-10
T HE soils of Florida offer a subject for extended discussion. In variety they surpass those of any other section of the United States. Like every other state, Florida possesses fertile lands and lands that are profitless for agricultural purposes. In some localities the good and poor lands lie in close proximity.
The geological history of the peninsula doubtless has had much to do with its variation of soils. The gradual sweeping down from the northern hill country of detritus has given to the northerly part of the state the same general clay soil that forms a large portion of the State of Georgia. This clay underlies much of the upper half of Florida, appearing at the surface, or overlaid from a few inches to as many feet, by a fertile porous soil, in which carbonate of lime, as small particles of sea shells, and accompanied by decomposed vege- table matter appears in large proportions.
The southern part of the state, evidently of later geological ap- pearance above the level of the sea, is rich in the black muck of centuries of vegetable growth and decay, abundant in nitrogenous compounds and productive of rank and quick growth under the favor- ing glow of a semi-tropical sun and the absence of killing frosts.
CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS
The Department of Agriculture in an exhaustive discussion of the subject, prepared by Mr. Henry S. Elliot of that branch of the state service, has divided the soils of Florida into the following classification:
First, second and third rate pine lands, high hammock, low ham- mock, and swamp lands.
The pine lands cover much the larger portion of the state. To a casual observer these soils appear to be ouly sand, high in the per- centage of silica, but closer examination shows a thorough mixture of
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carbonate of lime, in the form of disintegrated oyster shell, besides other mineral and decomposed and finely granulated vegetable matter.
First grade pine land in Florida is wholly unlike any soil to be found elsewhere. The surface is usually covered with a layer, several inches thick, of dark vegetable mould. Beneath this to a depth of several feet is a chocolate-colored sandy loam, mixed with limestone pebbles, the whole resting upon a substratum of marl, clay or lime- stone. The fertility and durability of this land in its natural condition have been tested repeatedly by the production of heavy crops of corn or cotton for twenty or more successive years, without the use of fertilizers and without any evidence of exhaustion.
The second class of pine lands includes the largest portion of the cultivable area of the state. They are widely and richly productive. Over a large portion the surface is undulating but rarely hilly. Be- neath the surface is clay, marl, lime rock or sand. The substratum of clay is sometimes so far below the surface that it is not within the reach of plant roots, and this fact is argued as against the productive value of the land. This soil, which is a mixture of sand, disintegrated shell and decomposed vegetable matter, is essentially light, spongy and porous. This characteristic makes it conserve the contained moisture for the uses of vegetation. The tendency is toward a uni- form distribution of this moisture, and when by evaporation or occa- sional drought the upper layers of the soil are dried out, capillary attraction brings the contained moisture from the lower levels within the reach of vegetation.
In the same way the natural plant nourishment of the soil and of applied fertilizers, which is held in solution, is made useful to growing plant life. The practical productiveness of this class of soil is much increased by the judicious use of fertilizers and by the addition of humus in the form of decomposing vegetable matter or of stable manure.
THIRD RATE PINE LANDS
Even the third rate pine lands, the most inferior of the three classes, are by no means worthless in the climate of Florida. This class may be divided into two orders; one comprising high, rolling sandy districts, sparsely covered with stunted growth of "black jack" and pine, the other embracing low, flat, swampy regions, which are occasionally inundated, but covered with luxuriant vegetation and usually with valuable timber. These lands afford excellent ranges
A BIT OF PINE HAMMOCK
-
FIRST CLASS PINE LANDS
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for cattle besides being very valuable for their timber and naval stores products.
The better class, rich in calcareous salts, is particularly adapted to the growth of sisal hemp, a most valuable tropical product, as well as to other fibrous plants that have been introduced into Florida.
SOIL AND HEALTH
A feature almost universal in this state, especially among the pine lands, is in the topographical variations and it is to be found in no other section of the United States. These pine lands which form, as has been noted, the larger portion of the surface of the state, and which are universally health-giving, are studded at intervals with ham- mock lands of the richest quality. These hammocks are not low or wet; they rarely require artificial drainage. They vary in extent from a dozen acres to twenty thousand acres, with a probable average of about fifty acres to each such hammock. The natural timber growth is a mixture of pine, white oak, red oak, water oak, live oak, gum, bay, hickory, magnolia, cabbage palmetto and other hard woods, of which Florida has a larger variety than any other state in the Union. The high hammock lands differ from the low hammocks in that they occupy higher grounds, and in their generally undulating surface.
The high hammocks are in greatest favor in Florida. Their soil is a fine vegetable mould mixed with a sandy loam, often several feet thick, resting upon a substratum of clay or limestone. Such a soil combined with the climate of Florida, is extremely productive. It rarely suffers from an excess of moisture, nor is it affected by drought, as are other varieties of soil. Usually it requires only to be cleared and plowed to fit it at once for the largest productiveness of crops adapted to the climate. It is cultivated with less labor than many other varieties of soil, because its mellowness resists less than others the progress of the plow.
Large areas of high hammock lands are found in Gadsden, Leon, Madison, Jefferson and Jackson counties, underlaid with a stiff clay. They are of the earliest geological formation in the state, and it is claimed by many that they are the best lands in the state for the cul- ture of cotton and for general farming purposes.
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SWAMP LANDS
The swamp lands of Florida offer probably the most durably rich soils in the state. They are of the most recent geological formation and are receiving, year by year, constant accretions to their surfaces. They occupy the natural depressions or basins, which have been filled with gradual deposits of vegetable debris that has fallen where it grew, or that has been washed in from higher levels.
Naturally drainage is an indispensable preliminary for their suc- cessful cultivation, but when properly drained their remarkable fer- tility sustains the most exhausting crops with astonishing vigor for many successive seasons.
The greater part of Florida's swamp lands are in the eastern and southern parts of the state. The great Everglades tract is the most extensive area of swamp land in the entire country, covering millions of acres. Low hammocks, which are practically swamp lands, are not inferior to them in fertility, but are not considered so desirable. They are usually level, their soil is rich and always deep. Drainage is often necessary to carry off the water that is likely to accumulate in rainy seasons. They are particularly well adapted to the growth of sugar cane, as are the drained swamp lands, and with the climate, which permits the full maturity of this growth, have made this section the richest country in the United States for this product.
Lands of this description have produced six hundred gallons of syrup, or the equivalent of five thousand pounds of sugar, to the acre, surpassing the yield of the best Louisiana and Texas sugar lands. The advantage lies with the Florida lands, not because they are essen- tially richer, but because the later arrival of frost in the autumn permits the complete maturing of the cane, which often and usually is prevented by the more rigorous climate of the sister states.
POROUS SOILS FAVOR HEALTHFULNESS
At first thought it would appear that the immense areas of inland water surface and the abundant existence of vegetable matter in the hammock and swamp lands exposed to the heat of the semi-tropical sun, would induce a wide prevalence of malarial diseases. This class of affections does exist, but in a much milder form than in any of the more northern latitudes. They are usually in the form of intermit- tent fevers whose effects wear away as the individual becomes accli-
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mated. The explanation seems to lie in the fact that the luxuriant vegetation of the middle and southern states passes through all stages of decomposition on the surface of the earth, giving out constantly its poisons to the air, but in Florida it is dried before it reaches the putrefactive stages of dissolution. Further than this, the soils of Florida are almost universally so porous and absorbent that moisture, an essential of offensive decomposition, seldom lies long on the sur- face. The atmosphere is constantly in motion, breezes from the gulf and ocean sweep the state without interruption, and Florida has more hours of sunshine each year than any other state in the nation. These influences combine to reduce to a minimum all possible injurious results from the decay of luxuriant vegetation or of animal matter.
SOIL SURVEYS
The United States Department of Agriculture has published soil surveys of several limited sections in the state. These have been issued with maps showing the distribution of the various soils, classi- fied according to the nomenclature adopted by the department. The accompanying text affords valuable information as to the uses to which these soils may be most advantageously put. The work has been extended over only a small fractional portion of the cultivable area of the state, but as the necessity for detailed information regard- ing other sections shall demand, it is probable that this service will be extended more generously to Florida, as is being done in other states.
SELECTING LANDS IN FLORIDA
The settler coming to Florida from other and much different soil and climate conditions, is often perplexed to make a wise choice of lands on which to undertake farming operations. In view of these conditions there appears to be but one sensible course open to follow- it is to see the land before he buys. This is the advice given by all conscientious dealers in Florida's soils. Many such dealers practically refuse to sell their lands until they have been inspected in person by the buyer, or by some person in whose judgment he has full confi- dence. Much injury has been wrought in the settling of the state by blind purchases in which the prospective settler experienced serious disappointment when he began to work the land. There is little sym- pathy to be expressed for the person who will make the selection of his home and of land on which to win a livelihood without exercising
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the judgment that he displays in buying a horse, in which the possible loss would not be great.
The advice that should be followed is that the prospective buyer should examine his possible purchase of land carefully. Compare it with cultivated lands surrounding it. See what the land in close proximity produces under cultivation, and above all, ask questions, for reliable information is always available and every reputable dealer in Florida land prefers that it should be most thoroughly inspected before a purchase is completed. Do not buy from the map, but see the land itself.
CHAPTER VII AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES
A S a land of varied opportunity, Florida ranks among the first of all the states. The assertion is not made without a careful consideration of its full significance. As a starting point, Nature has been most liberal in its gifts; in the geographical location, which makes the peninsula one of the important gateways to the northern continent; in the large number of natural harbors which are of increasing necessity to the commercial development of the state and nation; in the immense deposits of phosphates, which already have made Florida's mines the largest source of the world's supply; in the vast forests of pine from which more than sixty per cent of the world's naval stores is produced annually; and in many other direc- tions which unite to make the state potentially one of the richest in the nation.
But in no particular has the state been more generously favored than in its agricultural possibilities. For this reason it is essentially an agricultural section. Two-thirds of its population is classed as rural, which means that this proportion gains a livelihood directly from the soil. The percentage is largely increased if it is made to in- clude the tens of thousands whose support comes indirectly through handling the products of the soil or in supplying the necessities of the rural community.
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