Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-03-13
Tanning the Everglades
BY Frederic J. Hsskin


boat The gladcs used 10 produce nothing
but alligators and magazine stories; now
they arc producing sugar cane, corn and
| garden truck.
This means TINT one of the last great
| American wildernesscs IL about 10 be
tanned, True, only q small fraction of its
area, which Is about the same M that Of
! Connecticut has beer made habiinbIe for
men. Fifteen Thousand acres is ON estimate
of the area now under cultivation md
about three thousand people live in the
| Everglades, including the two Thousand in
| Morehavcn, the glade metropolis But the
| drainage cnrals which are To pierce the
watery heart Of the great swamp are al
most completed. The water IL roceding
steadily, the area Of farm land creeping
| farther in. There is a part Of the glades,
| perhaps a fifth Of the whole area IN the
far southern end, which will probably
never be drained because il IL too low.
This will remain as memento Of what the
glades were, and il should by all means be
made into a state or national reserva-
tion. For the glades as whole are doomed.
The glades are certainly one Of the
most stubborn and resistant wilderpesses
on the face OF the earth. Within thirty
six hours Of New York by rail, surrounded
for a long time by populolis and cultivated
territory, with some Of the most fashiona-
bic resorts in the United States within n
few miles, the Everglades have remained
almost unexplored until quite recently,
and even now there are parts OF them that
no white man has ever seen. A seeker after
contrast could hardly do better than to
spend day or so at Palm Beach IN ono Of
the most luxuriously civilized settings In
the United States, and then go ten miles
west, into the wilderness Of the saw grass
and palmetto, where bear, deer and alhga-
tors still abound.
Hunters fishermen, Indians, explorers
and naturalists hnve traversed the glades
for good many years without in any way
changing them, but now an individual has
invaded their sacred siences who brings
achange in his wake This Individuals the
Florida Real Estate Man, than whom
there is no more belligerent imaginative
and indornitable representative Of his
ubiquitous species. A Florida real estate
agent can sell you a pile of sand or
puddle Of water without half trying He
can take you out and show you some Of the
widest and dreariest spots IN creation,
and by the sheer power Of the spoken
word he can make you see that same des-
ert blooming with orange blossoms, and
green with corn. When travelling in Florida
it is always well TO keep the fingers crossed
and make a resolution not TO sign any
thing.
STATE OWNS DIG PART.
But the real estate man is not supreme
in the glades. OF its drainable lands there
are about two million acres in private
ownership, but nearly million and a
half are still owned by the State ofFlOrida.
The State is doing the work Of cutting the
primary drainage canals, and a settler
can buy land direct from the State.
To understand this work of drainage you
must know tina { the gIades are not q swamp
IN the usual sense of the term. They con-
sist of a great shallow limestone basin
elevated a dozen feet above the sea. This
basin is filed with clean fresh potable
water by innumerable springs IN its bottom.
The water is always slightly moving. For
this reason there are scarcely any mos
quitoes and the region is quite healthy.
The State began the work of primary
drainage IN 1905, and it will be completed
now within a few years. This work con-
slsts in c,IttInga number Of outlets through
the rim of the basin, so that the water can
flow into the sea. But the cutting Of these
primary canals does not thoroughly or
completely drain any of the lands. In
order to do this, laterals and sibIateral
canals must be cut, and this work devolves
upon those who buy the land.
The State law favors the Individual
settler III search of a home rather than the
development company and the speculator.
1t provides that if anyone wants to buy
more than 800 acres Of land IN the glades,
he must make a bid and the lands must
then be advertised and sold 10 the highest
bidder No real estate operator likes 20
buy land that way. He goes 10 all the ex-
pense of making an investigation of~the
lands, and then someone else perhaps
outbids him and takes them away from
hun. The chances of getting them at
bargain are slim. The individual settler
who wants less than 800 acres, On the
other hand, can buy from the State at the
assessed value of the land, which is from
s35 10 $50 an acre.
The trouble is that the individual set
tier has rather a hard time draining his
lands. They can be most conveniently
drained In lots from ten thousand 10
fifteen thousand acres. The man who
takes up a hundred acres may have diff
culties. 1t is said, however, that if he takes
lands on one of the canals he can drain
them fairly easily There is also apro-
vision of the State law by which the set
tiers 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
impregnated with acid, and viii kill some
crops. The average settler does not seem
to understand this. The land should be al
lowed to lie exposed TO the air for a wear
or so before it can be safely cultivated,
except in few crops of no great value.
No doubt settlement is slow also be-
cause the amount of capital required to
put hundred 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 plow, he has
considerable investment TO make None
the-less, those who have done the thing
right now have splendid and profitable
farms.
One of the most interesting products of
the little patch of the glades now under
cultivation is sugar canes. The Florldian
claim that it grows there much better
than In Louisiana, The cultivation of IL
only began five years ago and is rapidly
spreading. If the shortage and attendant
high prices of sugar continue, it is quite
probable that the greater part of the Ever
glades may be converted into giant sugar
bowl for the United States.
nfha,~ ,nte - fhs oriaHp lands or