. Conservation. Forests and forestry. Camp on Caloosahatchee River were bad in the pine woods. We as- cended the New River, a beautiful, winchng stream, generally deep, but very deep in places, one spot having a depth of eighty-five feet. The banks were quite low and sandy and lined with moss-draped cypress, oak, maple, magnolia, cocoa plum, pond apple, etc. After a short ride we reached the be- ginning of the drainage work—one long canal ran northwestward, with the (h'edge Everglade at its head, hard at work; another due westward, with the dredge Okechobee at its end at work. These canals wil
. Conservation. Forests and forestry. Camp on Caloosahatchee River were bad in the pine woods. We as- cended the New River, a beautiful, winchng stream, generally deep, but very deep in places, one spot having a depth of eighty-five feet. The banks were quite low and sandy and lined with moss-draped cypress, oak, maple, magnolia, cocoa plum, pond apple, etc. After a short ride we reached the be- ginning of the drainage work—one long canal ran northwestward, with the (h'edge Everglade at its head, hard at work; another due westward, with the dredge Okechobee at its end at work. These canals will run about twenty miles out into the glade and will be met by a canal running north and south from Lake Okechobee to a point about twenty miles west of Miami. The dredge Miami is now at work at the head of the Miami River; another dredge is at work on the west coast, opening the old Disston Canal into Lake ()kechobee. As these canals are finished, dams are made to hold back the water to fa- cilitate dredging, showing rather a sur- ])rising amount of fall and how ef- 458 fective these canals will prove in dis- charging the floods of water from this big area. I understand that the Gov- ernment will permit the level of Lake Okechobee to be lowered only four feet, since a Federal appropriation has been made to dredge the Kissimee River, which empties into the northern part of the lake. There were no mosquitoes in the Everglades during our visit, and crops already growing on the land, owned by eager settlers, show what can be done on land only partially drained. Western capitalists mainly have bought this land; the money from the sales is doing the work, and the fur- ther it progresses the more the land will bring and the more eager people will be to get hold of it. The Board of Internal Liiprovement is wisely hold- ing back much of the land from sale, knowing full well that as time goes on it will increase in value and thus yield ample funds for the continuation of this importan
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectforestsandforestry
