GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 235

mercial fertilizers of other kinds became available in large quantities, but almost stood still between 1895 and 1900, when two severe freezes dealt the orange industry a staggering blow.* (The lake region actually lost poptllation during that period.) From 1900 to 1915 approximately the former rate prevailed, but the world war retarded the increase between 1915 and 1920, as it did in most other parts of the United States outside of manufacturing centers.
 COMPOSITION
 The percentage of negroes was lowest in T885, only 28; but increased soon after that, when the development of farms and phosphate mines created a new demand for unskilled labor, and also at the time of the great freezes, when many white people of northern origin left the State. At this writing the racial composition for 1920 by counties has not been made public, but it is quite probable that the negro percentage is now even less than it was in 1885, on account of the great northward migration of negroes during the recent war. As in other parts of the South, negroes have always been most numerous in the most fertile regions.
 The red and yellow races constituted less than 1-20 of 1% of the total population in 1910. Over half of them were Chinese, and most of the Chinese were in Tampa (and presumably in the laundry business.)
 There are (or were in 1910 at least) more men than women in every region, as is the case in practically all countries that are being settled up rapidly, for men naturally precede women in seeking homes in new .territory.

 NATIVITY
 The percentage of foreign whites in the total population ranged from 4.3 in i85o to 1.96 in i88o, 9.1 in 1910, and 7.3 in 1915, a'nd is highest in and around Tampa, on account of its being a seaport and a large city. The leading foreign nationalities represented in the whole area in i88o were English, German, Swedish, Canadian, Irish, French and Scotch, all from much far*See Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agriculture 1895:143-174 (1896); Geograpthical Review 2:361-367. Nov. 1916.