SWAMP RECLAMATION

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1847, 31 July 1907, Page 9

SWAMP RECLAMATION

GREAT PROJECT IX AMERICA

The great task of reclaiming the arid lands of the western -States being now well under way, under terms of the Federal Act, the national government is now turning its attention to the reclamation of another species of “waste” lands, namely, the swamps. In a preliminary investigation of tlhe subject by a Government expert, it appears that there are <50,000,000 acres of swanii) land scattered over the United States, much of it being capable of being di ained and put to profitable use. The expense of reclaiming this land, according to 11. M.Wilson, the ofacial of the Geological Survey, who has had charge of the matter, will be less than in the case of reclaiming arid lands, and th 6 project has the additional advantage that (lie land brought info cultivation i> much more accessible to the great masses of population. Bills providing for a. comprehensive scheme of this kind are now before the Senate committee on public lands, and the project is very favourably regarded in Government circles. The proposed method of procedure, so far as financing is concerned, includes a setting aside of a fund from sales of public lands in regions where swamps- abound for the preliminary work, and a subsequent assessment of costs, against the lands improved, be they publicly or privately owned —the same .method which has proved so successful in the arid reclamation. Much drainage work has been done in the past by private interest, and by connties, and even States, but in the majority of cases on a narrow and cheap basis-, and without any real understanding of the essential features of the jnoblem. California Oms spent millions of dollars. in draining the marvellously rich Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, but in great part the 1 money was wasted- because the -work was beyond the local men who undertook it —at least, so say the Federal officials. Work begun on the Dismal Swamp, in Virginia wan abandoned, and the canals are now overgrown with clogging vegetation. To obviate the 1 oss occasioned by any such ill-digested schemes, the Geological Survey department of the Federal Government lias for some years pastbeen preparing topographical maps, showing ’where all large swamps in the United Staates occur and their relation both in distance and position to natural drainage channels. The biggest swamp in the country is Che vast tract known a-s the Everglades of Florida, containing nearly 4,01)9,090 acres. Forty miles wide and 100 miles long, the greater part of this region is covered with -saw-grass marsh—the haunt of the alligators and of an occasional Seminole Indian. This vast area of land is declared by the officials to be entirely reclaim able;. At the edge of the Everglades ornate ‘interests have drain-

ed a patch, upon which is grown about 6001 bof sugar to the acre. No great! engineering difficulties stand in the way of redeming it all. A ledge of rotten limestone along the eastern ledge holds back the water, which stands thinly over the whole swamp during the entire year. If this were cut through and the channels deepened that lead from the interior, the whole of the swamp might be drained and an . area larger than some of the States' brought into use. This is but one of the many swamps which the staff of the Geological Survey has studied with the view of being ready to put into effect a well thought out scheme of drainage. The demand for land has made it imperative that every available acre of land shall be rendered cultivable. The swarms of immigrants show uo signs of diminishing, and although too many stay in the c-itios, an appreciable proportion of them lilt the earth. Land must be found for them, and that is why Uncle Sam is going into the business of draining the .swamps as well as irrigating the deserts —New York correspondent of ‘'‘Melbourne Age.”