NARRATIVE OF A CRUISE TO LAKE OKEECHOBEE 



095 



and harvosted each year wiiliiuit tlie 

 use of any kind of fertilizer. In many 

 of the clearings intended for the plant- 

 ing of cultivated crops, animal weeds 

 had appeared and were thriving. One 

 native weedlike ]ilant was conspicuous, 

 a pigweed, hdtimically known as Ac- 

 ni(J(i and popularly as "careless." This 

 aniuuil is a giant among weeds. It 

 produces in one season a stem often 

 more than twelve feet high and a foot 

 in diameter. It is usually much 

 branched, and bears myriads of flowa-rs. 



Soil, aside from mere decayed vege- 

 table matter, however, was nowhere in 

 evidence. We passed over areas of what 

 had been formerly lake bottom, as well 

 as the cleared forest lands, and found 

 nothing but spongy "peat." 



Later in the afternoon we collected 

 on the prairie-like regions west of 

 Moorehaven and also in the open places 

 in and about the settlement, which 

 probably a year or two before had been 

 covered with saw grass. It was inter- 

 esting to find how the garden flow- 

 ers which the settlers had brought in 



I he ]»revious year had taken possession 

 of this untamed soil. Phlo.x {Phlox 

 Dniiinnoiidii), evening primroses (Ikdi- 

 nniniiid Druinmondii, liaimannia la- 

 ci II ill hi), blanket flower (Gaillardia) , 

 zinnia (Crassina), and the flower-of- 

 an-hour (Trionuni) , all grew witli 

 greater luxuriance in this wild state 

 than I have ever seen them in culti- 

 vation. As a result of growing crops, 

 thei-e had escaped from the fields al- 

 falfa (Medicago sativa), tumble-mus- 

 tard {Norta aliissima), cowpea (Y'iijna 

 fdncnsis), beggar-ticks {Mcibomia pur- 

 purea), and several large grasses. 



Having used up the time our sched- 

 ule allowed for our work here, w'c reluc- 

 tantly started back through the Moore- 

 haven canal for Lake Okeechobee. In 

 dredging this canal, which is really a 

 channel in the lake, there have been 

 thrown up high banks of a mixture of 

 white siliceous sand and sea shells, a 

 deposit that was formed when the re- 

 gion was the bottom of an ancient sea. 

 Although this material did not seem to 

 have any available plant food in its 



Compare this picture of the sliores of Pelican Lake in 1917 with the photograph on page 

 684, showing the same area five years before (1913). The hammock has been destroyed, the 

 water has receded, the humus, dried and cracked, supports only a rank growth of coarse weeds. 

 Vast tracts in this region will be devoted to agriculture, but certain selected areas of imique 

 interest and value should be conserved under Government control 



