178 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY-I3TH ANNUAL REPORT

tween Crystal River and Homosassa. As most of this soil is within a few inches of sea-level, and remote from settlements, it is not utilized much if at all.
 Many if not most of the low hammocks, particularly in the Gulf hammock region, are evidently on marly soil, called "Parkwood clay loam," etc. This contains a large proportion of calcium carbonate, and its texture is shown by mechanical analyses I to 3. A good deal of it is under intensive, cultivation, for example near Coleman, and also near Lake, Jessup, if that is properly classed as marly soil.
 WET SOILS
 ['Vet prairies, ponds, etc. In the Gulf hammock region and the three other flatwoods regions there are many areas depressed a few inches or feet below the general level, and filled with water in wet seasons. Some of these contain pond cypress and other woody plants, but a great many are treeless, and known as prairies, or sometimes as "sand soaks." The soil differs little from that of the surrounding flatwoods, except in being saturated with water much of the time and having a little peat or muck overlying it and more or less mixed with it. Some such areas have been mapped in the soil survey of Pinellas County as "water and grass." Their present agricultural value is almost negligible.
 Peat. In the lake region and less frequently elsewhere there are many deposits of peat, often ten feet deep or more. They have been described in considerable detail in the 3rd Annual Report, which contains a table showing the ash and moisture content and a. few other features of many samples from various parts of the State.* Some of our peat, particularly around Lake Panasoffkee, is quite calcareous, but all, as far as known, is low in potash. The vegetation on it may be either swamp, marsh, or prairie.
 All peat needs to be drained before it can be cultivated, and very little of the deep peat in central Florida is situated so that cultivation is profitable at present. An area of several hundred acres along the Ocklawaha River southeast of Ocala was drained seven or eight years ago by diverting the river, and part of it put under cultivation. Some shallow peat or muck is both richer and more easily drained, and therefore better adapted for agricultural pur*This table is reprinted in the 6th Annual Report, pp. 59-62.