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today, that of all our Territory on this side the Mississippi, Florida & Florida alone produces certain tropical fruits & other products, of general consumption, & which, were those improvements made, might be raised in abundance sufficient for the whole country, & so as to render us independent for their supply of both East & West Indies, in war as well as peace. The climate of this state- which from the daily passage of the sea breeze across it is milder than that of states farther north- would also be rendered more healthy for all seasons; its lands could be cultivated by white labor, & it would become the general resort of certain classes of invalids throughout the winter months.

9. Draining swamplands in the state of Georgia-Alabama-Mississippi & Louisiana.

10. Levying anew, & permanently, the Banks of the Mississippi, from its mouth as high up as may be necessary to confine the annual floods within its channel.

11. To these I would have added the Pacific Railroad, but that I have been anticipated by someone, who, it appears, has already called the attention of Gen'l Howard thereto, as a fitting object on which to bestow a part of this labor.

12. Lastly; should any of these people remain unemployed, a beginning might now be made towards that, the completion of which must necessarily be the work of ages; viz, The formation of Oases throughout our Great Western Desert- now a blank on the map of our Territory - by means of Artesian Wells. Should the Pacific Railroad be ever built, such wells will be required at frequent intervals along its route, to furnish a supply of water for the use of its Engines & Resident Agents. From each of these as a centre others might be located at convenient distances to the right & left thus forming in time a breadth of habitable country which might be ever enduring. Similar belts might be carried on simultaneously through other parallels, until their edges should meet. And scientific men have declared that, so far as now appears, this is the only possible way in which the great deserts of the world can be reclaimed.

Whether the remaining obstructions to navigation in the channel of the Mississippi

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