FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 139 



Wet land. More attractive, however, is the problem of deal- 

 ing with that class of waste land which is described as too wet. 

 There are several factors in this problem which make it pecul- 

 iarly interesting to constructive minds. In the first place, such 

 lands are always low-lying, where they have received for ages 

 the washings from the higher lands surrounding them. Con- 

 sequently the soil is remarkably fertile after it is once drained 

 and reduced to cultivation. In the second place, the abundance 

 of \vater secures the cultivator against drought. When rainfall 

 is in sufficient for the higher lands, these low lands can be sure 

 of sufficient moisture by the simple process of stopping the 

 drains, or checking the rate at which surplus water is being 

 drawn off. In the third place, the conquest of these lands is an 

 engineering problem pure and simple, and the success of the 

 enterprise does not depend upon the uncertainties of the weather, 

 the amount of rainfall, and similar problems which frequently 

 affect the success of irrigation enterprises. Finally, the conquest 

 of such lands does more than to increase the area of productive 

 land. It removes menaces to health, because these low-lying, 

 swampy areas are sources of disease and furnish breeding places 

 for mosquitoes, which are the bearers of disease germs. It re- 

 moves hindrances to travel and transportation, because, next to 

 mountains, these great swamps are the most serious obstacles 

 in the way of the road builders. 



Along the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Florida, but most 

 especially from Virginia to Florida, besides portions of the 

 Gulf coast, considerable areas around the Great Lakes, and 

 other scattered sections, there are vast swampy areas which are 

 capible of reclamation if the work is undertaken on a compre- 

 hensive scale and carried out in a scientific manner. It is esti- 

 mated that along the Atlantic coast alone there are 80,000,000 

 acres of these swamps, now of little or no use. They produce 

 some timber, it is true, but they are menaces to health and 



