The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-07-28
SWAMP LANDS THE BEST IN THE
WORLD.

fits from draining swamp land now
uncultivated. Professor Johnson
says:
In. fertility the lands now rightly
classified as swamp and wet are the
richest we have on the continent. In
fact the swamp earth is sufficiently
well stocked with elements of plant
food in many cases to justify its use
as fertilizer or manure for ordinary
soils.
I'VE are told that the South Caro-
lima boy, Jerry Moore, used rich
swamp dirt as manure on the acre Of
land from which the wonderful yield
of 22S bushels of corn was made last
year Other fertilizers and manures
were used with this swamp earth, but
this good black, wet dirt dug up in
the center of the farm swamp gave
the base and skeleton upon which to
build and hold the other materials of
plant food.
"By both chemical analysis and &C
tual practical tests these swamp soils
have shown their great value. a val
ne which renders profitable their use
in comparatively small quantities as
fertilizers. would and does justify ef-
forts to drain and reclaim these lands
in large areas for farming purposes.
The above is particularly true of
the timbered swamps in the Prosper
Colony tract which occur in small
bodies OF one acre to ten acres in all
parts of the colony, and they can all
be drained by ditching into the creeks
flowing through Prosper Colony,
which are the headwaters of the Kis-
simmee river, and have a fall of near
~ five feet to each mile. Or the
drainage can be accomplished by the
deep well system which the Prosper
Colony Company has fully demons
trated by the eight-inch well they
have recently completed on their forty
acre swamp farm in Taft Prosper Col
ony.
This wonderful well is actually
drawing or furnishing channel into
the bowels of the earth for all the
surplus water in this forty acre
swamp.
The well is 419 feet deep and cost
s2.75 per foot. An eight-inch iron
casing was driven with a steam ham
mer tobed rock about 165 feet From
this point an eight-inch hole was
drilled through the rock to the depth
stated above. where the assures in
the rock were sufficient to cary away
the full capacity of the well. nearly
six hundred gallons per minute. The
water in the well stands permanently
at twenty-five feet below the surface.
The weight of the water flowing into
the well at the top forces like guam
tity of water out through the assures
in the rock, near at the bottom of the
well. This water is supposed to flow
into the Gulf of Mexico through sub
teranean streams This is merely
conjecture, however, but we do know
that it flows somewhere and that the
well is not only capable of draining
the land, but should the land become
too dry it is capable of furnishing the
water TO irrigate it by pumping.
This well is one of the wonders of
nature, and the stranger is slow to
believe, but it is a fact The water
in the pipe stands at the same point
whether stream is pouring into it or
one is being pumped from it. furnish
ing a perfect means of drainage and
an endless supply of water for irriga-
ito, retaining body of swamp
land its fertility of soil having no su.
perior. 1t may be a question in the
minds of some of our readers, how
does the drainage water get into the
well? There has been a canal dug
through the swamp; at the Lowest
point in the swamp the well is locat
ed and the pipe was driven to the
bottom of thecanal, some six feet be
low the surface of the land Wire
screenes have been securely fastened
around the we'll to prevent trash flow
ing into it. When the clearing of the
swamp is completed the Pros
per Colony Company intends to put in
a system of thing to carry the surface
water quickly into the canal which
empties into the we'll Should the
soil become too dry for successful
crop growing, the process will be re.
versed. The canal will be filled with
water pumped from the well. The
tile will fill from the water in the ca
nal carrying it to all parts of the farm
quickly and the capillary attraction
soon bringing the water to the sur.
face. When in the farmers judg
ment the moisture is sufficient the
pump stops and the surplus water re-
turns into the we'll When the com
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