The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-06-13
MR.. DAVID KIRKLAND ON THE
POSSIBILITIES OF FLORIDA

y IHe EulJOF Ocala Banner:
To fully comprehend the future az
ricultural possibilities Of Georgia anC
Florida, one must be familiar will
their vast acreage of undevelopeC
lands, the character of the soil, the
great variety of crops they will pro
duce, and their excellent railroad anC
water transportation facilities.
Florida has an area of approximate
ly 35.O00,000 acres, about one-half Of
which is cultivatable, we'll drained up
land, the other half is composed OF
prairie marshes, cypress swamps
lakes. rivers and bayous. OF the cul
tivatable lands, less than 1900, GOO
acres are under cultivation, which
produce annually crops to the value
of about $36,O0O,0OO.
Florida can boast of producing
abundantly four of the worlds great
est staple products, viz: Rice, cotton
turpentine and sugar; also mines OF
phosphate rock for commercial fer
tilizer and is one of the two states
of the Union producing the orange
grapefruit and pineapple crops Ii
grows vast quantities of other fresh
fruits and vegetables every month
in the year, which supply the Jackson
vile and Tampa markets, and during
the late winter and early spring
months furnish New York, Philadel-
phia. Boston. Washington, Chicago
and other northern markets with
strawberries and other vegetables at
prices which are gratifying and remu-
nerative to the grower.
If such returns could be obtained
from two million acres of land, what
might be expected if all the alluvial
lands of Florida were cultivated in
some of the many farm products that
are grown so successfully in the state.
FlOrida's forests are of immense val
ne. having great abundance of cypress
and long-leaf pine.
When the Panama canal is complet-
ed, Florida will become one of the
gateways to the Orient, and her pro
ducts, without breaking bulk, will be
shipped from Key West, Tampa and
Pensacola. to the principal markets of
the far east. These are a few of the
natural conditions that bespeak for
Florida a great future.
do not wish to, or intend in any
manner to detract from the splendid
highlands of Georgia and Florida, but
to place before the public facts con
corning the agricultural possibilities
of what is designated as the swamp
or overfiowed lands of these states,
concerning which the department of
commerce and labor of the federal
government recently published a few
statistical facts, abstracts in which
were shown the fact that Florida has
10000 900 acres of such lands. Until
within recent years the United States
has had such an abur dance of well
drained and we'll watered prairie farm
lands, that little attention has been
paid to the declaiming of arid or
swamp lands. but now that the mar
kets of the world are looking 10 the
United States for their food products,
and our population is increasing at
the rate of nearly 100000 annually,
natural farm lands are now to be
found outside of the deserts and
marshes, the attention of thoughtful
and enterprising men is turned to-
ward their reclamation. The states
of Georgia and Florida are to be con-
graduated on having such large
area of sO-called marsh lands, lands
that are composed of silt and decOm-
posed vegetable matter, which is the
natural accumulations of centuries,
and when properly diked and drained
will become the richest and most pro-
ductive lands in the world.
The first question is, can these
lands be drained? The answer is:
They can and they are being drained.
Several Florida drained farms that
three years ago were wet prairie are
now owned and operated by farmers
from Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and
Ohio, and other northern and south
ern states. What has been done so
successfully in the reclamation of low
lands in foreign countries, can be
done, and is now, in fact, being done
in the United States.
Holland is known as a country OF
"Dutch-diked farms" that are now
worth from $500 to $500 per acre
1t was a great undertaking to con
struct levees sufficiently high and
strong to protect lands that were fiji
too,, foot hoIOu- ~ b,1+ the