The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-11-11
ANOTHER GREAT PRODUCT
OF MARION COUNTY

Marion is not only the richest coun-
ty agriculturaily speaking in the
state, but contains unlimited supplies
of material to make other parts of the
state rich.
Marion's phosphate is an old story.
1t made us famous thirty years ago.
Today that great product reposes un-
touched in its caverns because the
timelock of war has been shut on the
machinery of the industry. But there
is another great material that has
just begun to move, and need not stop,
because the demand for it proceeds
from within our own boundary lines,
not only of the nation and state, but
the county.
We refer to peat. When the aver
age man thinks of peat, he thinks of
it as the fuel the Irish and people of
other timberless and coal-lacking To-
calities dig from the earth. Compar-
atively few know it is a fertilizer as
well--a fertilizer in itself if people
desire to use it that way, and filler
for all kinds of commercial fertilizer
for all who desire to utilize it in
manufacturing that material. at is
composed of vegetable matter of var
ious kinds, roots, fibers, MOSES, etc,
deposited usually in low places, and
appearing in nearly every stage of
transformation, from almost purely
vegetable to ignite"
There is great supply of peat in
Marion county-we might say mex
haustible; at any rate it will outlast
you and me and our grandchildren, SO
we should worry as to whether it will
exhaust US. And there is quite a
story going with it, too.
All the world has heard of Brow
ard, the man who started the work of
draining the Florida everglades, and
much of our state has heard of the
men who cut a canal to drain the Ok
lawaha Farms and create a little
Egypt in Florida. But before Brow
ard had noticed the possibilities of the
everglades, there came to Marion
county man who looked at vast
stretch of prairie and figured plan
by which he could raise crops to feed
a city on every 40-acre lot.
When somebody says prairie, the
average American. thinks of great,
grassy plain, on which the cattle may
Craze and mustangs and motor cars
romp at will. But in Florida prairie
is generally stretch of territory on
which the cows may feed in the dry
season and in which the fish may swim
in the wet season.
There is such a stretch in Marion
county. Go north fifteen miles on the
Seaboard, detrain at the little Mead
ows station-you can better make the
trip in an auto-go east from the
railroad track less than a mile, and it
hes before you, an immense tract,
level as a. barn floor, and unbroken ex-
cept for few little "mottes" of pal
metto here and there. 1t is well worth
seeing. 1t probably lay stretched out
there in its unbroken placidity when
Moses herded cows in the land of
Egypt. There came to it one day over
thirty years ago from the north a
man who looked it over and found in
his mind faith that he could make
it as rich and useful as the same
amount of Egypt had ever been, and
with a view to being helpful to his
fellow men he entered upon the task.
He failed, not because he was mis-
taken in his ideas, but because he did
not, like Broward, have the resources
of state behind him, and because he.
found himself confronted with OBJ
stacles which did not appear in the
terrain Of the Oklawaha farms some
thirty miles further south. But his
work developed the fact. that instead
Of being just an extraordinary rich
piece Of farming land, the Meadows
held immense supplies of that very
useful fossil, peat.
Not long after this discovery, cap
italists sent men to investigate the
possibilities of the discovery. Peat is
a very useful element. In Ireland,
Iceland and some other parts of the
world it is used for fuel almost ex-
clusively. 1t will probably never be
used that way in America-it is much
more valuable in other ways.
A company was formed, big plant
was put in, operations began and the
first car was loaded with the finished
product Nov. 8, and is now on its way
to the northern factory.
A few days ago, we went out to the
Meadows and saw this first car finish
its loading. The small party of which
we were member included Banker
Munroe, Assistant Banker Wilson Ga
devoted friend of Woodrow and Louis
Chazal. 1t was Thursday afternoon
and bankers half holiday. The bank
ers are wiser than the other business
men of this town. They have half a
holiday every Thursday all the year
around. As they all close together,
and all their patrons know they will
close, it costs them not one cent, but
saves them half day week in wear
and tear on their banks, themselves