New-York daily tribune., 1857-04-18

There has been q good deal of discussion IN
Georgia of the possibility, or that conceded, of the
pik of draining the Okefenokee Swamp. This
is s1ated in the southeastern corner of the State
in the County of Ware, and is thirty miles long by
seventeen broad The st. Mary's river runs almost
parallel with its eastern border for about twenty
miles, and its southern extremity is the northern
boundary line of Florida. Many steamers connect
it with the country bordering on the west and
north, and with the Suwanee River, in Florida, on
the south 1t contains several islands, the most
important being Floyds Island, which is the
center and of considerable extent. We are with
out any minute description Of the character Of this
swamp. Indeed, so little is known of it that The
Saranndh Georgian speaks of it as terra 'neognaa
"a chaotic and hideous wilderness" which
hugely disfgures the map of Georgia 1t is
said to be very rich in cypress, but whether
q great proportion of this, as in the Great Dismal
is below the surface, We are not informed.
But upon this as we'll upon other points We shall
soon receive full and accurate information. Mr..
r. L. Hunter, who is declared to be competent
engineer, with corps of assistants has been en-
gagged during the last four months in survey Of
this swamp. His object has been to determine the
practicability Of draining it at reasonable cost,
and to obtain something like an estimate of the
value of the soil after drainage. Mr.. Hunter is
preparing an elaborate report, which will be sub
mitted to the Legislature of Georgia at ts next
session. OF the feasibility of draining the whole,
or at least large portion, of the swamp, he has
IL - x.r,th tha
Mary's by a canal three or four miles long, with
saystem We suppose, of local drainage and reclaim
ing. As no mention is made of them, We presume
that those difficulties which make the drainage of
the Dismal a puzzle 10 the engineer are not appre
hended by Mr.. Hunter.
Ware County, in which the Okefenokee Swamp
ia situated is almost exclusively agricultural in its
pursuits, is thinly populated, and only sends one
representative to the Legislature. The people do
not appear to be in a very elevated condition.;
scarcely any attention is paid to the subject of edu
cation and White, in his &" Statistics of Georgia,
recommends the organization of &" Temperance So
cieties" in the county. The natural resources,
however, are good. The black-seed cotton
grows there finely, and sugar-cane, corn, potatoes,
peaches, Dgs, HtlOHs anu Orduxos dTe pro-
duced. A great work ike that now proposed, if
successfully executed, would probably furnish a
large tract of excellent land where it is much
needed, and might arouse all the inhabitants to
something like energy and enterprise. The wood
of course would be the foremost object of industry
and traffic. After the swamp had been stripped of
this-as it is not probable that any growth would
supply its place-it would then be time TO see
what could be done in the way of agriculture.
We presume that the swamp soil of the Okefeno
kee is of the same kind substantially with that of
the Dismal Swamp. Mr.. Olmstead, in his valuable
work upon " the Seaboard Slave States" says
that Mr.. Wallace has reclaimed four hundred
acres on the northeast border Of the Great Dismal
The soil thus cultivated became very productive
and was found particularly adapted to the culture
of corn and potatoes. Forty acres planted with
the latter produced two thousand one hundred
bushels, which sold in Norfolk for four dollars a
barrel. Mr.. Wallace reckOned the cost of reclaim
ing at fifty dollars an acre. from which was to be
deducted the value of the timber obtained from it.
We shall await with interest the report of Mr..
Hunter. Georgia has been called the Model Slave
State and her prosperity and enterprise have been
regarded as unrivaled She is certainly ahead of |
some of her sisters but the figures and facts
show that her greatest agricultural resources re-
main to be developed.