The herald., 1897-12-26
TO INVESTIGATE
| HyACNTH PEST.
Government Expert Hopes to
Find Means for Redeeming
Southern Rivers.
SERIOUS MENACE.
Navigation Almost Stopped III
Many Places-Islands Spring
Up in a Night.

So serious has become the hyacinth
nuisance in some of the Southern States
that the United States government has
been appealed to by the river men to
aid them in ridding the waterways Of
an obstruction that is rapidly making
them unnavigab!e. Captain Sackett, of
the corps of United States engineers,
has been sent to make investigations
in behalf Of the government, and
committee of prominent Southerners,
headed by Civil Engineer Charles LIE
Baron, are aboIt to experiment with
various devices for ridding the rivers OF
this pest. All kinds of suggestions
have been made, from letting loose
parasites cultivated for the express
purpose of destroying the plant to
building extensive embankments TO
keep the hyacinths imprisoned in one
spot. Many chemical preparations have
been recommended, but the great diff
Guilty in the use OF these has been that,
while they doubtless would accomplish
the result, they would kill the fish,
which form one Of the chief sources of
food supply for the poor. On two things
only are the people of the South unani-
mously agreed,-that the hyacinth
must be destroyed, or it will ruin their
rivers and harbors, and that the work
of destruction cannot be completed
| without years of labor and the expendi-
| ture of millions of dollars.
The pest makes it's presence most
plainly felt on the waters of the St.
Johns River. A few years ago only a.
stray plant here and there was visible.
Now the lagoons and creeks are
| stopped up tight, and wherever there
is any obstruction in the track of th e
| river the hyacinths are caught and ac-
cumulate until they extend over acr as
of the surface, forming huge mass
of tough fbres which, reinforced oy the
| logs and tree trunks which float down
| and get entangled in the network.
| makes an obstruction that will sink
| the steamer unfortunate enough to col
| lide with it at night.
| At some points on the river the hya-
cinths extend from bank to bank, FORM
| ing solid barrier through which the
river boats are compelled to ran. their
way under a full head of steam, back
| ing away and returning to the charge
| again and again, until the obstruction
is cut through,-or until, as sometimes
| happens, the clinging, snake-like ten
| drills of the tough plant have wrapped
themselves around rudder and paddles
| in such a way as to completely tie up
| the boat and make further progress i'm
possible.
Captain Dodge, Of the river boat
Penobscot, said Of a recent trip made
by him through the obstructed waters
Of st. Johns River:
i "The plant has spread so rapidly that
! it was almost impossible to get
through. AS a breeding place for frogs
and snakes, these waters beat anything
that have ever seen. My vessel was
tied up at the dock in Palatka, and
on every hand the hyacinths were SO
thick that the river looked more like e
| marsh than water. From the time that
I lay down to rest until after midnight
it seemed as though every brass band
on earth had been let loose, and the
unearthly noise was continued night
after night"
| A short time ago two men who were
out in a row boat were incautious
enough to venture too near to the float
ing mass of flowers, with the result
that they became so tangled up in the
tendrils that it was necessary for a res
cue party to go next day and cut them
out.
When floating, quantities Of hya-
cinths often appear suddenly in a part
of the river previously free from them,
producing an effect as if vast island
had risen up in the midst of the stream
during the night. The way the pest
grows is the wonder of visitors from
the North and the despair of the South
erners. The plants thrive chiefly where
the bottom is of mud, and the only way
the boatmen along the river banks