Morning journal and courier., 1885-06-24


 quart per stalk. Many stalks would yield two quarts of juice. Thirty-fve gallons of syrup were made from the juice. This would be equivalent to raising 16, 1000 stalks per acre. containing 4,000 gallons of juice, and yielding TOO gallons of syrup. This showing would have been 20 per cent. better had we possessed frst-class apparatus"
 could readily believe this statement, for the machinery employed was most crude, 8 small two-roller mill being used, and being operated by horse power. The bagasse, or crushed cane stalk, was still wringing wet with juice. It was further stated that no ingredients were used to produce defcation or clarifcation.
 ''Is there much such reclaimed land as this?' I asked. Thousands of acres all the way from here to Punta Rassa. Of course there is some hopeless swamp scattered along also, but it is fair to say that agriculturally this will be the garden of the State down here few years hence."
 Glow long is this canalf' ftThree miles and three-quarters. At this end it is ten feet deep by seventy wide. Down yonder you can see dredge No. at work now en- larging it. Beyond the dredge the depth is only six feet and the width thirty six" ]. After inspecting potato and other crops that were similarly rank we boarded the Rosalie, and began the trip through the canal to Lake Cypress. When we reached the dredge whistle sounded and in re- sponse the stays by which the dredge main tained its position on the east side were folded back so as to allow us to pass. We did not pass on without paying tribute of admiration to this giant dredge, said to be the finest for her special work in the United States It was built in the Kissimmee ship yards at an expense of $40,00O and has a capacity of discharging fifteen cubic yards of mud and water per minute. It is supplied with two engines of one hundred and forty horse power. ! The discharging tube was a mammoth affair, extending out beyond the edge of the canal fully eighty feet and and slush far beyond it's own mouth. The suction is so powerful that even can- non ball, it is said, would pass through the long cylinder if it got into the way. The upper story of the dredge was used as dor mitory for the men engaged in the dredging operations.
 "Where is your hospital2" I asked of the man in charge. "Men don't wade around in the swamps here without paying the penal ty." "There is no hospital here or in any of the other dredges. We are in the water one minute and in the sunshine the next. We sleep in these swamps from one months end to another's; we work all day in the rain. But nobody ever gets sick"
 Yet it seemed almost impossible to believe
 
 continue healthy. Some were engaged in wading hip deep or shoulder deep iR the bordering swamps, planting wooden retain ing wall in the ground in such way that it would keep all the muck from returning into the canal when the discharged water found its way back.
 At the mouth of the canal the Rosalie got stuck on a sand bar. She was tiny craft, drawing only IS inches of water and measur- ing only fifty feet over all, including her stern wheel; but the operations of the dredge already referred to create the bar so rapidly that no efforts are made to remove it until the dredging shall be done, when it will vanish of it's own accord. Af- ter an hour or two of churning the water in the vain effort to get back or go ahead, while men waded in the water and tried to push her around, we succeeded in getting over the bar and started across Cypress Lake.
 Cypress Lake is so called, I suppose, be- cause there are so few expresses in and about it. At least it may be said, however that those few which do reach their huge trunks and gaunt moss-hung limbs above the water are grotesque and weird when seen as we saw them at night with full moon bathing ths scene in it's tender tropical radiance.
 I should mention in passing that these northern lakes have been lowered from five to six feet.
 A moonlight ride of three miles across section of the lake brought us to the moutl of a new canal now in process of construc ton between the lake and Lake Hatcheneha At present communication between the two lakes is had by means of the Kissimmee river, which was eleven miles in lengtI when the company began operations. The circuitousness of the river has been affected so that the distance is now but seven miles This is not satisfactory to the company, how ever. A new canal is being constructed to connect the lakes which will only be @ little over two miles in length, and, having all the fall of the river, will consequently possess a much swifter urrent,-which is a great ad- vantage, of course.
 As it was about time for us to be tying up for the night, we concluded to go down the canal ss far as it was 6nished-a distance of mile and a half, and pull up alongside of the dredge which was putting the canal through This we did, and then went on board the dredge while our sleeping accom- modations were being prepared. Canvas was let down all around the upper deck, and then the space was divided into two apart ments. Comfortable beds were brought forth good sheets and blankets provided, and that great desideratum, mosquito net canopy, let down over each one of us. The canopies were so close to us that we could hardly turn over without disturbing them, but they kept the mosquitoes out effectually, and that was enough, for the mosquitoes were frightfully pestiferous.
 And now owing to the extent of our expe- riences during this trip, I must leave our party right here, resuming the narrative next week. EMILE.