Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/616

612 Burns in 1892 admits the healthfulness of this kind of country while granting it no other advantage. In White's Statistics (1849) we read that there were no doctors in Wayne County at that time, because none were needed. The universal surface of sand in this region makes it the cleanest country imaginable, especially in wet weather, and also incidentally obviates the necessity of shoeing horses.

The water from shallow wells near the swamp, especially those which penetrate the "hardpan" of the ridge, is not always agreeable to persons unaccustomed to it, but an abundance of good water can be obtained from artesian wells, which are in successful operation at Waycross, Fargo, Moniac and other places.

The greatest material resource of Okefinokee Swamp to-day is of course the cypress timber. This cypress, sometimes distinguished as

the pond cypress (Taxodium imbricarium), is not the same as the common cypress of commerce (T. distichum), but its wood is believed to be a little stronger and heavier if anything. The pond cypress of Okefinokee is not surpassed anywhere for quantity and size, this being near' the center of distribution of this species. (The other species seems to center in the lower Mississippi valley.) With conservative methods of exploitation the supply should be practically perpetual. Next to the