 Real estate companies continued to advertise and sell land along newly dug canals . In April 1912 — the end of the dry season — reporters from all over the U.S. were given a tour of what had recently been drained , and they returned to their papers and <unk> about the progress . Land developers sold 20 @,@ 000 lots in a few months . But as news about the Wright report continued to be negative , land values <unk> , and sales decreased . Developers were sued and arrested for mail fraud when people who had spent their life savings to buy land arrived in south Florida expecting to find a dry parcel of land to build upon and instead found it completely underwater . Advertisements promised land that would yield crops in eight weeks , but for many it took at least as long just to clear . Some burned off the sawgrass or other vegetation only to discover that the underlying peat continued to burn . Animals and <unk> used for <unk> got <unk> in the muck and were useless . When the muck dried , it turned to a fine black powder and created dust storms . Settlers encountered rodents , <unk> , and biting insects , and faced dangers from mosquitoes , poisonous snakes and alligators . Though at first crops <unk> quickly and <unk> , they just as quickly <unk> and died , seemingly without reason . It was discovered later that the peat and muck lacked copper and other trace elements . The USDA released a pamphlet in 1915 that declared land along the New River Canal would be too costly to keep drained and fertilized ; people in <unk> . Lauderdale responded by collecting all of the pamphlets and burning them . 
