312 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT.
injurious substances (as in the alkali soils of the West), can be cultivated with profit, and this is the fundamental reason for the modern demand for the drainage of swamps, marshes, etc. 'The principal physical drawback about peat soils is of course that they are saturated with water; and as agriculture began and has had its greatest development on dry land,.human ingenuity has as yet devised very few crops adapted for growing, in water.
In many cases the water can be removed by drainage without much expense, 'and after the acidity of the peat is corrected by weathering or the application of lime or manure, the proper fertilizers can be applied and crops raised in the usual manner. Peat has the advantage of being very easily tilled, and never suffering from drought. It shrinks considerably in drying, however, and this has to be taken into consideration in making plans for draining it by ditching.
Some peat which is unavailable for fuel on account of being too shallow or too impure, or both, is for the same reasons all the better adapted for cultivation. Most of the peat deposits, or "muck lands" which have been cultivated in Florida are of just this character, shallow and sandy. Other things being equal, calcareous peat ought to be better for agricultural purposes than typical sour peat.. One advantage possessed by the Everglades is that they are everywhere underlaid by limestone, which is just the proper thing for correcting acidity; and at many- places toward the south end there seem to be all gradations between peat and marl, which ought to afford the right combinations for quite a variety of crops. Not all crops are adapted to peat soils, but it would be beyond the scope of this report to make any recommendations along that line.