IN THE EVERGLADES 19 



think that such a large tract should have not only the richest 

 soil and finest climate, but be so located as to be subject to 

 subirrigation throughout, with Lake Okeechobee as a reservoir 

 and the entire Kissimmee River valley as a never failing supply 

 of not alone water but humus as well. When to this is added 

 the water transportation it is no wonder that thousands have 

 bought and will buy homes here. This country can easily pro- 

 duce forage enough to supply a million head of cattle the year 



around. 



* * # * 



I have often wondered why the black muck of the Everglades 

 should contain two or three times as much nitrogen as similar 

 land in the North. The only way I can account for this condition 

 is that the severe disintegrating action of the frost in the North 

 frees a much greater proportion of the ammonia, thus making it 

 water soluble, by which agency much of it is washed from the soil 

 and wasted. 



As we can till soil here in the South and keep it active 

 throughout the entire year, all the nitrogen necessary will be freed 

 to grow abundant crops, and for this reason, if for no other, the 

 producing ability of this Everglade muck soil will be wonderful. 



There is no doubt whatever in my mind that this most expensive 

 element (nitrogen) can be entirely dispensed with in our fer- 

 tilizers for Everglade land as soon as the land is sufficiently re- 

 claimed and aerated to remove enough of the everpresent acidity 

 to allow the germs of nitrification free action. That this is true is 

 proven by the fact that recently drained land here already produces 

 fully twice the wild growth it formerly did. 



