344 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



A thorough system of drainage canals, beginning at Lake Okeechobee, 

 to cut off the surplus water from the north, and with others through the 

 glades at intervals, the natural rainfall of the everglades proper would be 

 quickly led away through these channels to the sea, and this great basin of 

 more than five million acres become suitable for cultivation. 



Since there is considerably more than twenty feet elevation at interior 

 points, and the distance only from thirty to forty miles each way to sea, there 

 should be no great difficulty in constructing drainage ditches. 



Throughout the everglades the varying elevations of the underlying coral 

 formations, together with the density of the abundant saw grass, cause the 

 sheet of water which spreads out over the glades to flow in very irregular and 

 tortuous channels, which courses are known to the Seminole Indians, but are 

 guarded by them with greatest secrecy, so that the white man is totally ignor- 

 ant of their direction or depth. 



On either side the tall grass is so dense and impenetrable nothing can be 

 seen from the surface, or from the little canoes which are the only means of 

 navigating its passage ways, the height of a man who propels the canoe with 

 a pole, and not with paddles, being too low to see more than a few feet dis- 

 tant. 



Such white men as have penetrated this water prairie have found the re- 

 gion to be very healthful, with pure clear water purified by the water plants 

 which abound, while all report the soil to be exceedingly fertile and capable 

 of reclamation. 



About Lake Okeechobee the digging would be through earth and loose 

 fragments of coraline rock, with an abundant fall to insure a rapid flow of 

 water in a straight open ditch. 



At Miami, the Miami River joins Biscayne Bay. Four miles from its 

 mouth it pours over the limestone ledge in rapids having a descent of ten feet 

 in less than a quarter of a mile. From the head of the rapids there are 

 several channels through -the glades, more or less obstructed with water lilies 

 and various plants. 



The Seminoles enter the Miami River and traverse the glades, reaching 

 Fort Myers and other points on the Gulf of Mexico in a very short time, 

 threading their way through the narrow passages unknown to the whites. 



I came into view of the everglades at a point some ten miles from Miami, 

 and as the water was low passed over quite a large tract which has been part- 

 ly reclaimed and which was being planted with oranges and vegetables. 



I procured the best pineapple, and the largest which I have seen, from a 

 plantation in the edge of this reclaimed glade land, while near by was the best 

 grove of grape fruit I have ever beheld. 



From an elevation I was enabled to see over the glades many miles and 

 am convinced that by the expenditure of a moderate sum in ditches the tract 

 may become of great value to the state and to the people who will occupy it. 



Miami is situated on a substantial foundation of this coraline formation. 

 The streets have been made as solid and smooth as any city in the country, 

 as also have miles of country roadway from this extensive coral deposit, which 



