New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-02-21

such a vast amount of drainage that o million
acres of swamp more OF less is q small matter v
there is TO be general drying up of the penn-
sula. And vet tie enterprise is amazing in its
magnitude. The Netherlsnders have gained
the praise of the world for their pluck and skill
in winning from the sea an amount OF arabic
land equal to one-tenth OF the territory Oh the
kingdom; but the area reclaimed was only
$4,000 acres. England has been for centuries
fighting water in the Lincolnshire and adjoining
fens, but there are only 100000 acres In the
whole Bedford Level. Hungary has been tor
years prosecuting q comprehensive system ior
draining her marshes, but less than half MIL
lion of acres have been recovered for agrlcui
ture. In this country good land has been so
cheap that a few acres reclaimed upon the New
Jersey coast, a few more on the shores OF Lake
Michigan and in California, and the plantations
protected from inundation by the Mississippi
levees, comprise the great bulk OF fertile
farming regions which have been rescued or
defended against the waters Of river, lake, or
ocean.
No doubt the capitalists who have undertaken
to drain Lake 0kechObee have informed them
selves as 70 its area and depth. If so, accurate
surveys of this region have been made for the
first time. Heretofore it has been vaguely
known to geoerapheTs as a sheet of water wltha
surface of some 700 square miles. When Haar-
lem Nicer was pumped dry it was considered
one of the greatest achievements Of hydraulic
engineering, but Lake OkechObee is ten times
as llrge as HARLEM Nicer. The region known
az the Everglades is practically sheet OF water
whose average depth is half Rs great as that OF
"a ri and
ing g. 500 square miles, or rather more than two
million acres. When Lake OkechObee and the
Everglades have been converted into productive
sugar plantations, but little more than One-htth
of the promised land will have emerged from
the water but after 30 much achieved there
will be little scepticism as to the ability of these
"capitall cts OF Philadelphia and the Pacific
| coast y to discover ten million acres mole OF
swamp to conquer.
The dispatch affiIms with cheerful confidence
that the reclaimed. area will produce more sugar
than the amount now consumed in the United
States, which is interesting II true. But when
man takes it upon himself to make such sweep
| ing changes in the carths surface, and to over
| turn on such destructive scale the eQulpolse
and stability which the conservative forces oil
nature are always working to maintain, these
operatiOns have an interest beyond their direct
| economical Importance. few years ago there
was n project to turn o river into the Colorado
desert and make an inland sea 1000 square
miles in extent. The flooding CT the Sahara
and the Dead Sea basin are schemes of like
character which have their advocates. What
would be the effect upon the temperature and
climate, the fora and fauna of these regions If
| do
oceans ut tide level, who can guess what results
would follow the simple interchange OF marine
| life between the Pacific and the Gulf The
dikes of Holland have made perceptible changes
in the ocean currents and temperature OF That
coast The destruction OF forests dries up
snrinos and causes devastating floods. What
would be the results-sanitary, elect ~ical, chem
icaI, meteorological, and Otber-Ot changing
| -. 600 900 acres of lake and swamp into dry
land7 Presidential lands are often made
healthy for man by drainage. But the change
here would be fatal, in the first instance, to an
inCalcuabe amount of life, from the alligator
down to the most diminutive organism when
| has its home partly exclusively IN water.
! Then the whole area is to be restocked with
animal life Of o different kind. 1t would be
safe to say that generally great notifications OF
climate would follow such extensive trans
formations of surface. EvapOIizatiOD is always
a cooling process, and the ObIiteratiOn OF this
broad stretch of water surface now steamlng
under q semi-tTOpical sun would surely tend to
make more torrid summers and less frequent
frosts in winter. In the case of Florida, how
ever, tho great bodies Of water on either side OF
the peninsula would help to conserve and mod
crate the temperature.
But perhaps there is no reason for any haste
in prosecuting investigations of this kind.
Florida will probably remain a damp country
for good while to come. The world as yet
knows nothing of the means to be employed in
carrying out this colossal undertaking, and per-
ais plain people will be more curious to know
1y what seductive influence the water is to be
allured from Lake Okechobee and the Ever
glades than to speculate as to what may happen
to the bottom and the people who will live there
after it is dry.