The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-07-19
MAIZE BY THE
SQUARE NILE.
Forest of Corn on the OklaWaha
Farm

the editor of the Star has been hear
ing of and desiring to see the Okla
waha River Farm, but none of his
friends have been thoughtful enough
to take him in sight of those broad
and fertile acres.
The sin of omission was removed
yesterday, when Mr.. d. S. Welch,
formerly a citizen of the world re-
nowned Iowa corn belt, and desirous
of seeing something equal to it, took
Mr.. L. w. Duval and the Star man in
his swift and staunch auto, to the IA
nous farm.
The party left Ocala about 1:30 p.
m, and in little over an hour reach
ed the farm, which is on the little
Oklawaha river, about twenty miles
south Of Ocala.
Everybody in this section has
heard of the Oklawaha Farm, re-
claimed at immense expense from the
river swamp, and setting an example
that will in time be followed along
every river in Florida. The promot-
ers selected a place where the river
was more than usually crooked, and
cut across a navigable canal six
miles in length. Into this they turn,
ed the river, leaving comparatively
dry a space of many hundreds of
acres, which they cleared and put in
cultivation.
A visitor to the farms first finds
himself in a little town of neat cot
tages, with a commissary, a deep
well and water tank. This, tho in a
few hundred yards of bottom land
that was river swamp half a dozen
years ago, is on a high pine ridge,
dry and healthy as any part of Flor
ida.
Leaving the auto in the settlement,
the party took shank's mare, and in a
few minutes came to the canal that
drains the farm. This is wide, deep
ditch, cutting off several miles of in
tricate river navigation, and thereby
doing the whole Oklawaha valley a
service. There viii be plenty of
boats along it by and by. 1t is good
canal, and if Bob Martin was big
enough he would carry it off some
dark night and put it down between
Silver Springs and Ocala.
Crossing the canal and passing
several fourishing fields of rice,
sorghum and other products, the
party took a road that led them into
the heart of the corn forest.
A forest it is, with the cornstalks
standing up like young trees. The
shortest are ten feet high, twelve are
common; some shoot up to twenty.
The stalks stand so close together
that there is no going thru them
without cutting a way. Two and
three ears to the stalk, and the ears
as heavy and long as are seen any
where.
As aforesaid, Mr.. Welch is from
the Iowa corn belt, but he says he
never saw anything like that Okla
waha valley corn. Any person who
should get off one of the tracks cut
thru the field would be lost. He
couldn't see ten feet in any direction,
and his only chance to get out would
be to tie three or four stalks to-
gether and climb up them. Four of
the stalks combined would hold an
ordinary sized man up.
The Star man thought he saw
something like a Hill ahead, and pro-
posed going to it, but Mr.. Duval
laughed and said it was only where
the corn was higher by a couple of
feet than it was right around the
party.
The fertility of this soil viii not
be exhausted for untold centuries.
For thousands of years the river
manufactured muck, till in some
places it is forty feet deep. The two
indispensable things-soil and irriga-
tion-are combined.
In every place where the ground
has been allowed to go uncultivated a
few weeks, the weeds have grown in
forests of their own Some of these
weeds are twenty and thirty feet
high. With much hard work, Mr..
Welch, using big, sharp pocketkRife,
cut one down and took piece of the
butt. 1t was hollow, or he couldn't
have cut it down with anything less
than an ak. The piece he took off to
bring to town was almost a foot in
diameter.
1t is estimated that this field of 700
acres will average 100 bushels to the
acre. A great deal of this win pro-
duce lbs. bushels The very worst
viii yield forty to fifty.
Rice planted a few days ago was