The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-08-09

claimed land at private sale, coireci
taxes; carry on irrigation work after
drainage is completed, and perform
many other duties. I'm other words, It
has the great powers grained to levee
and drainage boards in Louisiana and
Mississippi. and which have been
found necessary to enable them to do
any effective work
The proposition has the strong sup
port of Gov. Broward, but we are hear
ing the usual objections to the m-
provement; and the opposition to the
proposed drainage has tried to create
diversion by asking the following
questions:
Will the drainage of the Everglades
cause climatic changes that will DO
harm of more cost than the land to be
reclaimed will be- worth? To whom
will the land belong after 1t is reclaim
ed? Does the state now need the
land. or would it be better to wait until
there is a larger population? Would
the placing of so much land on the
market depreciate the value OF the
other land owned by the people? Have
any thorough surveys been made snow
ing the best places for the location OF
drainage works? Would the land sell
for more if put on the market ten
twenty or thirty years hence than IL
offered within year Or two?
There have been joint debates on
this subject between Gov. Broward
and the opponents of the Improvement.
T. is needless to say in Louisiana,
where much work of this kind has al
| hot hn oh
contained in the questions asked are
not worth a moments consideration.
The idea that the drainage OF a smatl
section of Florida will change climate
conditions is too preposterous for
moments consideration. and it is
wonder that those who suggested this
did not pretend that it would unfav-
orably affect the moon. We have drain
ed twenty times as much land along
the Missippi river in the same condi-
ton as the Everglades without the
faintest suspicion of any climatic ef-
feet
The proposition that the recovery of
so much swamp land may have ten
dency to depreciate the value of land
already drained probably e0erts more
III vi SctlilAlllS ch oPPO9ftiohs
1t is probably feared that the Florida
land market will be oversupplied and
that this may cause a depreciation in
values. Here also we can safely tell
our friends of Florida that they have
nothing to fear. The great work OF
draining and retaining lands on the
Mississippi and the Gulf coast of
Louisiana, in the Yazoo delta, the Ten
sas bottoms and the swamps of Came
ION, Vermillion and TerrebOnne has
not only not sent down values, but
actually advanced them, and this is
the experience the world over. Immi-
grants do not care to come into Sec
ton which consists mainly of swamps.
The more improved land there IS in
any state or district, the higher the
value of that land ranges.
The problem of draining the Ever
glades has never been either as diff
flcult or as expensive as the drainage
of the lands on the Mississippi. There
is no mighty river to contend with ~;
levees to be built. 1t is only neces-
lsary to provide the drains and keep
them open. Twenty years ago The
Times-Dsmocrat sent an expedition
through the Everglades, which, while
it by no means settled all the prob
lens involved, showed that the diff
Guilty was largely due to natural OBJ
structions, which prevented the out
flow of the rainfall in pretty much the
same way as the Atchafalaya ana Red
river 'rafts" formerly converted
large portion Of Louisiana into a great
swamp, interspersed with many lakes.
1t took some work and some years to
remedy this condition of affairs in
louisiana, but the cost was not great
There may be other difficulties in the
way in the case of the Everglades. but
they are not insuperable. The prop
osition ought to carry and will be I'M
questionably of great benefit to Flori-
da.