The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-03-31

hCJ5 uuIh dt last true L0rm1nal
would be reached at or near Key
West, and thece by overnight ocean
ferry to Havana. Railway capital
was also secured for the construc.
ton of the west coast line to Tampa
Following the building of these two
roads came one of the best demonstra-
tons we have had in the east of the
truth that is in the saying, Trade fol.
lows the tracks"
The New Railroads
| Now, an era which is sure to bring
large and perhaps extensive railway
building in southern Florida has open
ed. The eyes of capital, of other rail.
way leaders and of farmers are upon
the rich lands which border Lake
Okeechobee. Adequate drainage will
make these lands as fertile as any
that are irrigated by the Nile. With
rapid refrigerator transportation the
fruits and vegetables harvested from
these lands in mid-winter and early
| spring may be brought Within thirty
six or forty-eight hours at the utmost
to the great markets of the north.
Within two weeks southern capital,
| part of it from Louisiana and part of
it from Florida, will have united in an
organization which purposes to con-
struct a trans-peninsular railroad,
running from Tampa, on the gulf, to
Miami, on the Atlantic coast, a
straightaway distance of about two
hundred miles, touching somewhere
within easy reach of the states great
est interior lake, Okeechobee. What
will the remnants of the Seminole In
dams do when they see that the seclu-
sion which they have so long main
| tanned in the Everglades of Florida is
to be lost to them? This project, how
ever, is not regarded at present as of
as much consequence (although ulti-
mately it may be of greater) as is the
| construction of new electric railroad
which is to run from Fort Myers to
| Punta Rassa, at the mouth of the Ca
loosahatchee, and also from Fort My
ers to Lake OkeechObee, ultimately to
swing around the southern border of
the lake and across the Everglades to
Palm Beach
This electric railroad has been fl
nanced by capitalists of Birmingham.
Ala. The road is now being survey
ed. The engineers report that they
have found a practicable survey, and
that the road can be constructed at q
very reasonable cost; the chief engi-
neering difficulties met with are those
occasioned by the swampy nature of
completed within two years time. So
great has been the recent interior de-
velopment of southern Florida, how
ever, that instead of continuing the
railroad from Lake Okeechobee to
Palm Beach it may be the better plan
to transfer passengers to a steamboat
upon the lake which will be able to
sail by the recently built canal that
runs from the lake to the Atlantic
coast, near Palm Beach. That, how
ever, is a detail to be decided hereaf-
ter.
With this electric road and with the
contemplated trans-peninsular rail
road running between Tampa, on the
gulf, and Miami, on the Atlantic
coast and with the very great i'm
provements the government is now
making upon the upper waters of the
Caloosahatchee river, dredging it to
an average depth of nine feet from
Fort Myers, the head of natural nav
igation, to Lake Okeechobee, southern
Florida should, within the next five
years, be equipped with adequate
transportation.
From the economic and social point
of view, this development of Florida
is worthy of special consideration.
More than any other state of the south
it will owe it's progress and it's in
crease in population to immigration
from the north and from the west.
Some have thought that the climatic
conditions are somewhat ennervating,
especially in southern Florida. Tour
lists have sometimes complained that
they find the air too humid, some
what like the dog days of late summer
in the north. But statistics gathered
by the Florida authorities tend to
show that the climate must be very
healthful, for the death rate, except
among some of the descendants of
those who lived in Florida long before
the civil war, is shown to be as low,
relatively speaking, as anywhere in
the United States.
Few persons realize that Florida is,
in area, one of the largest of the
states of the Union, and it is one of