Lake Okeechobee essays

Lake Okeechobee essays November 3, 2001 Period # 5 Okeechobee County Okeechobee County was created in 1917 from Osceola, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie Counties. It is positioned in south central Florida, just west of the Fort Pierce region and is named for the great lake that it surrounds. The chief industry is agriculture, and the farms generate a huge amount of winter vegetables due to the natural soils of the county. Beside agriculture and dairying, Okeechobee County has a very little industry of any kind. The county is home to many local animals and plants sustained by the distinctive environment surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Lake Okeechobee is the second major freshwater lake within the United States. It is not very deep, with an average depth of only 14 feet. Fishing is a year round business. This lake has an outer surface area of 730 square miles. Its size is 448,000 acres and can hold about 1.05 trillion gallons of water. The chief sources of inflow to the lake is precipitation making up 39 percent, the Kissimmee River, which contributes 31 percent, and the Harney Pond and Indian Prairie Fish Eating and Taylor Creeks add 30 percent. Okeechobee Countys financial system is supported by agriculture. The counties principal industries are dairy and beef livestock. The countys yearly income from the agriculture industry is around $ 149,681,000. The county has 418 farms with 72,712 acres under cultivation and grazing land. With 133,000 heads of cattle the county ranks first in the state. The county also ranks first in the number of dairy cows, with 23 dairies having 32,000 dairy cows. These dairies generate 54,688,000 gallons of milk per year, which is three times in excess than any other county in Florida. In modern years, fa ...