Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-16

slightly moving. For this reason there are
scarcely any mosquitoes and the region is quite
healthy.
The state began the work of primary drain
age in 1906, and it will be completed now
ting number of outlets through the rim of
the basin, so that the waite. can flow into the
sea. But the cutting of these primary canals
does not thoroughly completely drain any of
the lands In order to do this, laterals and
sublateral canals must be cut, and this work
devolveS upon those who buy the land.
The state law favorS the individual settler
in search of a home rather than the develop
ment company and the Speculation. 1t provides
that if anyone wants to buy more than $50
acres of land in the gladeS, he must make a
bid and the lands must then be advertised and
sold to the highest bidder. No real estate oper-
ator likes to buy land that way. He goes to all
the expense of making an investigation OF the
lands, and then someone else perhaps OutbidS
him and takes them away from him. The
chances of getting them at bargain slim
The individual settler who wants less than $50
acres, on the other hand, ca, buy from the
state at the assessed value of the land, which
is from S35 to $50 acre
The trouble is that the individual settler
has rather hard time draining his lands. They
can be most conveniently drained in lots from
ten thousand to fifteen thousand acres. The
man who takes up hundred acres may have
difficulties. 1t is said, however, that if he
takes lands on one of the canals he can drain
them fairly easily. There is also a provision
of the state law by which the settlers can band
together to form drainage districts.
The settlement of the gladeS is said to be
proceeding slowly, despite the great richness
of the black muck which is left exposed by the
receding water 1t appears that when the land
is first Drained it is mpregnated with acid
and will kill some crops. The average settler
does not seem to understand this. The land
should be allowed to lie exposed to the air
for a year or so before it can be safely cult
waited, except in few crops of no great value
No doubt settlement is slow also because
the amount of capital required to put a hun
dred acres of the glades under cultivation is
considerable. When a man has to pay the
state fifty dollars an acre for the land, and
then dig lateral canals and put his land under
the pillow, he has considerable investment to
make. None the less, those who have done
the thing right, now have splendid and profit
able farms.
One of the most interesting products of the
little patch of the glades now under cultivation
is sugar cane. The FloridianS claim that ii
grows there much better than in Louisiana. The
cultivation of it only began five years ago and
is rapidly spreading. If the shortage and at
tendant high prices of sugar continue, it is
quite probable that the greater part of the
Everglades may be converted into a giant sugar
bowl for the United States.
The individual who probably witnesses with
least joy this tanning of the Everglades is the
Seminole Indian. The gladeS have long been
his home and his hunting ground When they
are gone, he, very likely, will have to go, too.