SOIL WATER, DRAINAGE, AND IRRIGATION 303 



practicability, but these are for future developments. There 

 is untold wealth in the soil of the arid regions for those who 

 can put a good supply of water upon it. 



306. Reclamation of swamp lands. The opposite of arid 

 soils is found in such extensive areas as the midrained or 

 poorly drained everglade swamps of Florida, the Dismal 

 Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina, the swamps about 

 our inland lakes (both large and small), and the overflowed 

 areas along the lower stretches of our great rivers. The 

 United States Geological Survey estimates that in this country 

 there are over 100,000,000 acres of undrained swamp land, 

 much of which is drainable. Along the Atlantic coast alone 

 there are estimated to be over 3,000,000 acres of drainable 

 soil. Often this kind of soil is the most productive when it 

 is properly drained. 



In the United States large drainage systems have been 

 built that are in a way comparable to the irrigation systems. 

 One removes the water, the other adds it. In the Everglades 

 of Florida thousands of acres of fertile soil have been made 

 tillable by the construction of large drainage ditches. 



As people are coming to understand better the fundamental 

 importance of the soil in the life of all the nations, they are 

 making constant effort to render greater areas of arid and 

 swamp soils available for use in agriculture, horticulture, and 

 gardening, and as homes. 



