Vol. EXXIX 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
W. .noth St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK. DECEMBER IS. 1920 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 28. 1S7P. at the Post 
Office at New York, N. Y., uuder the Act of.March 8. 187;>. 
- v 
' * M/s. 
No. 4617 
' • * . * ; . . • - 
Some Land Booms in Southern Florida 
A NEW DEN ELOI'MENT.— I made :i trip recently 
to one of the most advertised sections of Flor¬ 
ida. concerning which more things have been claimed 
in the way of protits than any section of tin* Enited 
States, unless it is some of (lie oil fields. This land 
is some of the recently drained Everglade swamp on 
the southwest side of Lake (tkecchobee. It is situated 
at the extreme end of a railroad line, and is difficult 
to reach. It has been claimed for this region that 
the soil is the richest in the world, and that il is 
the gaining section fol - the production of Winter 
truck crops. I spent two days looking tins over, 
going about by myself and talking with the men on 
the land Indore 1 met and talked with any of tin* 
development companies which are advertising the 
position from any one of a hundred drained swamp 
soils in New York or New Jersey or Ohio. The sur¬ 
plus water is carried off in with* open ditches which 
separate fields, and in turn empty into the large 
drainage canals, one of which has been made a 
navigable stream leading westward to Fort Myers, 
l ike all muck soils this region is very rich in nitro¬ 
gen. and produces a few very large crops, particu¬ 
larly of giant pigweeds, which grow to a height of 
12 to ir. feet. Cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes have 
all been raised here with great profit, but on the 
soils where as many as three crops have been re¬ 
moved the fields showed by the growth of the truck 
crops that something was wrong. A careful study 
of the growth of plants, particularly some Fall- 
.SOIIj CONDITIONS.—This in itself was not a 
serious fraud, hut when I talked with some of the 
men who had bought farms and tried to make a 
living from the land without speculation. I dis¬ 
covered a much more serious state of affairs. The 
soil along the lake ridge contains from 00 to 50 iter 
cent of mineral matter, which makes it easy to work 
and supplies considerable plant food. This land is 
described as custard-apple land from the natural 
vegetation which grew on it. Farther back from the 
lake, and on somewhat lower ground, there is still 
a larger area, on which the natural vegetation is 
saw-grass. This soil is very poorly drained, and 
much more subject to flood in wet weather. The 
soil underneath the saw-grass is much more peaty, 
land far and wide as an up-to-date Carden of Eden. 
DRAIXACE RESULTS.—This land was originally 
Under water during all of the wet season and most 
of the dry season, as Lake Okeechobee had no natural 
outlet excepting as it overflowed its hanks and 
Soaked its way through the swamps to tin* south. 
Recent dredged canals have connected Ibis lake with 
the ocean, and have lowered its -level from 21 feet 
above sea level to 16 or 17. As much of the lake is 
Quite shallow this has resulted in changing the size 
and shape of the lake, and leaving large areas of 
land free from standing water. Around much of the 
lake shore there is a lake ridge of somewhat higher 
land tlfan the general lay of the swamp, and on this 
ridge, if it may lie so called, the first developments 
were started. The soil is a jet black muck, not par¬ 
ticularly different iu appearance or chemical couu- 
A Pair of Agrshires in a Northern Pasture. Fig. 629 
planted white potatoes, showed clear evidence of 
potash hunger, which we learned to identify during 
the time when our supplies of fertilizer were limited 
by the war. The peanuts, which are raised exten¬ 
sively here, showed the need of more phosphoric 
acid, just as one might expect who has had exper¬ 
ience with muck soils in other places. When these 
needs were suggested to the real estate men they 
were at first indignantly denied, and when (he mat¬ 
ter was further pressed and evidence offered, three 
different men caiue hack with the same argument, 
namely: That it was undoubtedly true, but that it 
would never do to acknowledge that this soil lacked 
for anything. In other words, they considered that 
it would be treason to their business to begin the 
ust* of fertilizers, as one of the great claims of the 
place has been the richness of the soil. 
and when plowed is not fine and granular like the 
muck, but breaks up into pieces of tough, fibrous 
material of a lighter brown color. Analysis of this 
land shows that it contains less than 10 per cent of 
mineral matter, and experience shows that it has 
almost none of the potash and phosphates so neces¬ 
sary to the production of crops. The real fraud iu 
this section consists in showing the visitor some of 
the well-improved farms on the lake ridge, and then 
taking them back into the saw-grass region and sell¬ 
ing them a tract of land with the assurance that 
the soil is just the same as that which they have 
seen in a high state of cultivation. 
A CONTRACT WITH A JOKER.—Tn order to 
make the proposition more attractive the promoter 
assures the purchaser that he will drain the laud 
aud build a hard road oust each farm, writing it 
