Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-06-05
n1TssIssrPPr coRREspoNDEssR.

TgsIcA CoUaTY, Miss, May 80, 1851.
Editors Memphis Appeal.
The great hood that so recently swept
over the Mississippi bottom has just
retired, leaving behind IL the bones OF
! drowned hogs, horses and cattle, wasted
! plantations and ruined hopes. Great
| preparations had been made for large
corn and cotton crop; extensive puf-
ehases Of mules, fGrming implements
ard supplies, and labor procured for every
I farm. Farmers began TO plow early, and
! all promised well, but down came the
4 flO0d, aud for nearly three months the
negroes did nothing but eat, sleep, play
and fost their canoes over the buried
pIantatiOns. The mules aud cattle that
4 were saved consumed what the negroes
| left, and when the waters subsided no
thing remained for subsistence. Desperate
/ efforts were made, however, and soon
/ fence-making, and planting, and plowing
/ began anew, and people fiattered them
selves that after all, they would make q
I crop, and out do fortune for once. Soon
! the corn and cotton were seen shooting
IN, but with them came millions OF
worms that have continued to saw down
tie young plants, until there is very lit
tie corn or cotton to be seen. The farm
ers have replanted again and again, but
still the worms cut, and still the cold
nights and heavy rains continue to favor
them, until they have about consumed
all the seed in the bottom, and now it is
pretty well ascertained fact, that Mem
phis will handle twenty thousand bales
less Of cotton next winter. But you viii
be surprised to learn that fifty thousand
dollars, properly applied last summer,
would have turned aside this great evil,
and pre- vented all this loss and yet it is
true that that sum would have put up the
levee ia Tunica county and kept out
the food.
But you msy ask, If we knew all this
before, why we did not pat up the leyee
But answer, we were not able, nor are
we able now, nor will we ever be, unless
we esn borrow the money, or the floods
viii keep OFF for several years. ISnot
Nemphis interested in this matter Is
she not vitality concerned? ? When the
war broke up, the Mississippi and Ten
nessee. .raiIrosd could not be put in opera
ton without help from the merchants of
Memphis to the amount of one hundred
thousand dollars. And is the Mississippi
and Tennessee railroad Of more import
anee to Memphis than the Mississippi
bottom ? Tunica county is, | believe,
willing TO borrow the money If it can be
had for q reasonable time, aud for
reasonable interest. IL will now take
one hundred thousand dollars, as the
levee mas been much damaged. II
the levee was once secure, however,
a few crops would enable the people
70 pay il without the least inconvenl-
ence, and can not the merchants Of Men,
phis see their interest in advancing the
money? If they can not, and ! had the
head and tongue Of Pike, L could soon
show it to them. VIII not some enter
prising merchant or citizen take the lead
in this matter, get up the amount, and
offer il to the board of police for Tunica
eounty2 Certainly it is their interest to
do so. And lust here ! cannot but re-
mark, how much is lost TO Memphis in
another direction for want OF little en-
ergy and industry on the part Of her
merchants and steam bOatsmen. From
the Mississippi river to CoidwateF
through the YaZOO pass is only about sew
euteen miles; and through that pass
large boats can float, and as proof of il,
the federal gunboats and transports went
through there, and down Coldwater, until
stopped at Greenwood by the Confederate
fort there Well, up and down Coldwa-
ter and Tallahatchie rivers, ten, and per-
naDS twenty ilOusHuu DdltS COltOH 20 10
New Orleans, that would go to Mem
phis, if arrangements we're made in time
to send boats in there after IL; and then
the people instead Of buying what they
needed in New Orleans would buy in
Memphisk..I These are only hints thrown
out to the%ise and enterpTising. / had
nearly forgotten to mention that boats
can ascend Coldwater to the mouth of
Buck Island bayou at any season Of the
Eaar. even if they draw five feet water.
But Z must for bear to write more, as the
things mentioned may not be as much
matter Of interest to goa or your readers
as to one located here, and identified
with the country. I wish 10 see the
country once more prosperous, and this
can only be by encouraging the cultiva-
ton of the soil, and the best soil at that
We are now poor, but We can be. the
richest people the sun shines on if we
will ONLY 90 to work ourselves, and not
wait for some "enterprising yankes p to
open the way snd reap the profits. More
anon, if desirable, out if not, never
more. il. or TTNIOA.