for winter markets. And the same fertility that characterizes them
today, characterized them in the sixteenth century.

"There was an island situate in a great lake of fresh water (the
O-ke-cho-bi. water big) named Serrope, abounding with many sorts
of fruit, specially Dates, which grow on the Palme trees, whereof
they make a wonderful traffique; yet not so great as kinds of roots
whereof they make a kinds of mealo with which they make bread---
." So spoke a Spaniard to Rono Laudernniere at Fort Caroline in
1584.

The problems of the lake's high water periods were
mentioned by Fontenada in the same country. He wrote: "The lake
rises so high in seasons that the roots with which they make the
mealo cannot be reached in consequence of the water."

In 1850, Florida as well as other states, received by Act of
Congress all of the swamp and overflowed lands within her
boundaries which were unsold at the time of the passage of the bill.
The purpose of the Act was to enable states receiving swamp lands
to sell these lands to raise money for drainage and reclamation. The
grant to Florida was and still is the largest land grant ever made by
the United States to any state.

An era of land-grabbing set in. This was because the legislature
began granting bounties of lands to encourage railroad building. When
the State Internal Improvement Board became bank-