THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 51 



fectively or economically, or with justice to the in- 

 habitants of each state without the intervention of 

 some interstate authority. The Dismal Swamp oc- 

 cupies parts of Virginia and North Carolina. The 

 Savannah River on the northern border of Georgia, 

 and the Appalachicola on its southwestern border, 

 have great swamp and overflowed areas in South 

 Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. Between North 

 and South Carolina there are extensive interstate 

 marshes. The Okefinokee swamp of Georgia must 

 have its drainage outlets across the state of Florida. 

 The Tombigbee Valley in Mississippi lies above the 

 same valley in Alabama. The Pearl River bottom 

 occupies parts of Mississippi and Louisiana. The 

 St. Francis Basin extends into both Missouri and 

 Arkansas, while the swamp areas of the Red River 

 of the North occupy Minnesota and North Dakota, 

 and those of the Kankakee both Indiana and Illinois. 

 In short, the greater part of our swamp reclamation 

 problem is interstate." 



Few of the swamp lands mentioned by Palmer 

 remain in the Public Domain, which nevertheless 

 contains its innumerable smaller swamp lands pre- 

 senting nearly identical problems to-day. Applica- 

 tion for 164,745 acres of swamps were made to the 

 General Land Office in 1927, six times that of the 

 year before. 



There are other sides of the Swamp question 

 to-day than recovery of agricultural land. We are 

 not so sure as we once were that all should be re- 



