FLORIDA, a State in the South At lantic division of the North American Union, bounded by Alabama, Georgia, the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Straits of Florida; area, 58,680 square miles; admitted as a State in 1845; number of counties, 54. Pop. (1890) 391,422; (1900) 528,542; (1910) 751,139; (1920) 968,470; capital, Talla hassee.
Topography.—The surface of the State is very low and flat, gradually ris ing from a few feet above sea-level along the coast to a central ridge with an altitude of about 300 feet. The flat lands extending along the coasts consist of open grass-grown savannahs, cypress swamps, pine forests, and "cabbage ham mocks," so called from the extensive growth of the cabbage palms. The W. part of the State, excepting on the coast, is quite hilly. The S. part of the pen insula is built up of successive coral dikes; the upper part being occupied by Lake Okechobee, whose shallow waters gradually merge into the Everglades, an extensive swamp covering the entire lower part of the State. The Everglades are penetrated in all directions by a net work of small, shallow streams, and at short intervals over the entire area are found wooded islands covered with semi tropical vegetation. These islands are supposed to have been formerly sur rounded by the ocean and to have borne the same relation to the mainland as do the reefs and keys of to-day. The Ever glades are separated from the Gulf by extensive cypress swamps, the forests extending down the W. coast, narrowing out around the cape, and extending up along the Atlantic coast. Many of the Florida swamps are so densely over grown with vegetation that they have been explored but little and are con sidered impassable. Among these are the Great Cypress in the S. part, and the Fen Holloway and Wakulla swamps farther N. The Okefenoke swamp in the extreme N. extends over into the State of Georgia. Almost the entire Atlantic coast is protected from the ocean by sand bars and coral reefs. Florida is noted for the number, size, and clearness of her springs, the most famous being the Silver Spring near Ocala in Marion county, with an estimated output of 300,000,000 gallons daily. Other notable springs are the Wakulla, near Tallahassee, the We kiva in Orange county, and the Blue in Marion county. There are numerous sulphuretted springs along the coast; one near St. Augustine, 2 miles out at sea, boils so violently that the waves break against it as though it were a sunken reef. There are numberless lakes,
many being aggregations of smaller springs. The largest are Okechobee, Munroe, George, Kissimmee, Crescent, Dexter, Apopka, Harris, and Eustis. These lakes are usually quite shallow and are in many cases connected with the sea by subterranean passages, often causing strange fluctuations, rising and falling at irregular periods.
Geology.—The substratum of the greater part of the State is of Upper Eocene or Vicksburg limestone, while the coasts and the S. parts are mostly Postpliocene, or coralline limestone. Con siderable phosphate exists in various forms, land and river pebble, hard and soft rock, and vertebrate remains, the hard rock extending in a belt running S. E. from Tallahassee to the S. E. part of Pasco county.
Mineral Production.—The only impor tant mineral product is phosphate rock. A bout 1,500,000 tons, valued at about $4,000,000, are produced annually. Other mineral products are fuller's earth, lime, and mineral waters.
Soil.—The soil is mostly sandy, but supports vegetation in great luxuriance. The surface soil, depending on the char acter of the underlying rock, is rich in phosphates, and these, together with de composed vegetable matter, produce a very rich soil. In the N. and middle portions of the State, the oak, hickory, and pine grow extensively, while the long-leaved pine, pitch-pine, and cypress cover the S. portions.
Agriculture.—Florida exhibits the vegetable productions of both temperate and semi-tropical nature. In the N. the products include peaches, pears, and cotton, while the middle and S. counties produce the finest oranges, pineapples, mangoes, cocoa palms, guavas and al most all tropical fruits. The acreage, value and production of the principal crops in 1919 were as follows: corn, 840, 000 acres, production 12,600,000 bushels, value $17,640,000; hay, 113,000 acres, production 141,000 tons, value $3,243, 000; peanuts, 216,000 acres, production 3,402,000 bushels, value $7,178,000; to bacco, 4,200 acres, production 3,990,000 pounds, value $2,175,000; potatoes, 24, 000 acres, production 1,824,000 bushels, value $3,830,000; sweet potatoes, 41,000 acres, production 4,100,000 bushels, value $5,740,000; cotton, 117,000 acres, produc tion 17,000 bales, value $3,570,000.