The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-03-17
FRANK L. MAYES

/ contract dredging has ever been done
in the sand on Pensacola bar.
| The drainage of the Everglades, as
embodied in Governor Breward's plan,
embraces two main fealures-frst, a
means of lowering the water in Lake
Okeechobee which, fed by the Kissim-
NEE river and other streams from the
north, annually overfows the 21-foot
rim which surrounds it and floods the
entire surrounding territory; and,
second, a means of draining from the
fiat glades the 6o-inch annual rain
fall sufficiently to make them nit for
cultivation
The lowering of Lake Okeechobee
1contamplates simply the cutting OF
one or more bitches sufficient to carry
of the excess volume of water which
fills that huge basin at different times
in the year and thus prevent the
overhows The drainage of the slades,
after the Lake OkeechoDee overflow
has been prevented. contemplates the
cutting of small lateral ditenes by the
iowners Of the land, connecting with
the main state bitches and at such
depths and distances apart as may be
necessary This done, the land be-
comes Immediately tillable and no one
knows just how valuable it may then
become.
This Everglades soil is undoubtedly
the richest in the world. All the way
up New RiTersI saw large fields of to-
mato plants. many of which had been
drained by the fndiyiduai owners. At
several points on either side of the
big drainage ditch which the dredge
is now cutting l. saw tomato plants IN
fruit On the land that a rev months
ago was under water, but whose black
muck soil is now producing the heavi-
est crops that can be grown anywhere
in the world. / walked through an
orange grove en- a small island in the
Everglades which the owner told me
was yielding him handsome profit
but to which he could seldom get
access except by water. He can drive
to it by team now. z
syF
As 1 said before. there has never
been any doubt in my mind as to the
feasibility of drainage. There is no
doubt in my mind that the soil, when
drained, will produce the heaviest
crops that can be PRODUCES anywhere
But the scheme is so vast, the cost
so great, and the obstacles SO numer-
Gus that I have always hesitated to
lend my approval to a project whose
benefits seemed SO expensive and SO
remote. 1 do not therefore even now
pretend to say that the pfan. simply
as drainage Proposition, will prove
a profitable oness hut after traversing
this big ditch and seeing the actual
work of excavation which is going on,
have no hesitancy in saying that, in
my judgment at least one canal should
be cut into Lake Okeechobee, and the
told Diston ditch which now connects
the lake with the Caloosahatchee on
the west should be widened and deep
ened to a Ike capacity with thetcanal
from New River on which the dredge
is now at work. Why" do you ask.
|
Listen. The East Coast Canal Com
pany, private enterprise, has now
practically completed the dredging of
an inland waterway from Miami
through the shallow lagoons along
the East Coast to st. Augustine. This
waterway parallels a railroad. From
st. Augustine, the company will cut
some twelve miles west into the St.
Johns River, giving them communi-
cation with Jacksonville and again
away to the southwark of the interior
toward the head of the st. Johns
and over all of this territory this
waterway is but paralleling highways
Of commerce (railroads) that are al
ready established
| The cutting of Governor Broward's
ditch from the Atlantic ocean into
Lake Okeechobee viii give the pub
lie a Waterway highway of COM
merce-straight across the state from
the Atlantic to the Gulf. If it is worth
the while of a private canal company
to dredge waterway along the
East Coast where a gree: highway of
commerce, like a railroad. already ex-
lists, will it not be worth the states
while to dig canal across the state
itself, through a section where no
communication is now possible, thus
opening up the possibilities of that
section and shortening the water
route around Florida by several hun
dred miles?
Eliminate entirely the whole drain
age feature from Governor Broward's
scheme-put il to one side and for
get it-and you still have a project,
when completed, that will be worth
more to the state as a highway for
commerce than Its entire cost. And
if, in the digging OF this canal, the
practical value of drainage can also
be demonstrated-and it can either
be proven or disproyen by that time