The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-07-18
Retaining the Everglades of Flor
ida.
From the N. Y. Tribune.

A startling transformation is taking
place in the Florida peninsula. A gigantic
drainage system, whose ultimate object is
the retaining of the Everglades, has al
ready lowered the level of the big lakes,
turned oozy swamps into dry land, put
farms, houses and mills where alligators
once Owed and cattle waded and ferrymen
plyed in dugouts, and made this town, in
the heart of the peninsula, seaport. Sew
eral hundred thousand acres have been
added to FIoridas taxable property and
made available for profitable cultivation.
In the next ten years this will become the
greatest rice and sugar region in the coun-
try. The thing has been accomplished
with characteristic American effectiveness.
Hamilton Disston, its moving spirit, who
makes more saws and files at Philadelphia
than any other man in the world, has not
''stood around, like the great De Lesseps,
saying, "Geptlemen, for me the canal is
finished" He has simply laid careful
plans, and employed a competent force to
carry them out on business like principles.
The Florida peninsula slopes to the
south Along the centre is strung chain
of considerable lakes, some entirely isolated,
others united by tortuous streams. The
soathermost lake, Okeechobee, the biggest
of all, is also the largest within the bounds
of any one state. It's waters inundate the
mysterious Everglades, where the shy Sem
mole retreats before the advance of civili-
cation. During the Seminole war General
Harvey, General Jessup and other officers
learned something of the character of the
country, and occasional expeditions have
brought back stories of its dreary inacces-
sibility. But no white man has ever been
able to make his home there The upper
or northern Everglades next south from
Okeechobee are a wet jungle of dense saw
grass, populated by snakes and insects.
In the rainy season one may paddle up the
interesting creeks and bayous in light
skif, but in dry weather the soil is exposed
The lower Everglades, running down to
the point of the peninsula, are also saw
grass jungle, but cut up by countless water
avenues into thousands of islands. Toward
the southern end there's perceptible tide,
and the Gulf and Atlantic shores are lined
with a rock rim that impounds the waters
Many people believe this vast territory
utterly useless to man. The drainage com
panies are proving that it isn't. Centuries
of decaying vegetation have gradually
raised the earth level of the Everglades,
storing them with deep layers of rich, dark
soil that makes husbandmen green with
envy. A four foot reduction of the water
level would make all this available for cul-
tivation. Gen. Harvey, in letter, reported
to the United States Senate, suggested that
canals cut east and west from Okeechobee
and the glades would give the required re-
ductiOn. Mr.. Disston, as the story goes,
after careful examination and consultation
with Col James NJ. Kreamer, his engineer,
decided that it was also necessary to dimin-
ish the water supply from the northern
lakes that serve as feeders. These lakes,
moreover, he knew, were bordered by
marshes worth draining for their own
sake. So he went to the Legislature, and
in 1881 secured permission to reclaim all
lands below line drawn across the penin-
sula few miles north of Kissimmee and
east of Peace Greek, which debouches in
Charlotte Harbor. The tract embraced
100000 acres Four million of these,
however, Mr. Disston was compelled to
form a separate company to buy, to lift a
state mortgage.
Then the work began. The lakes, as
they occur southwark on the soping PENN
sula, are Tohopekaliga, Cypress, Hatchee-
nehaw, Kissimmee and Okeechobee. The
water level follows the land slope. Toho-
pekaliga is sixty-four feet above the sea,
Hatcheenehaw sixty, Kissimmee fifty-nine,
and Okeechobee only twenty. Canals cut
southwark to Lake Kissimmee and the
Strengthening of the very crooked river that
links Lakes Kissimmee and Okeeehobee,
have therefore relieved the upper lakes by
a steady flow, while cuts from 0keechobee
southwark into the Everglades and eastward
to the Caloosahatchie, that empties into the
Gulf near Panta Rassa, have lowered four
feet the surface of that great lake. The
piercing Of the rock rims on the coast is
expected now to release the water accumu-
lated in the Everglades. In the north end
Of the chain lake east Of Tohopekaliga
has been connected with the northern At