Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-12-06

the plantations and cultivabe lands from
overfoWs BY high water. From these
points to the mouth of the river waste
weirs of timber, with riveted aprons Of
plank, should be eonstrueted in the
leyees, SO as to carry of the food waters
into the sWamps, marshes and iagoons.
depositing in them the delta-m making
material of every food, while the water
by evaporation, spreading out over
greater surface, wastes itself, is drank up
by the soil, or filters itself through the
sands and is lost in other outlets to the
Gulf. The proportion and numbers of
these waste-weirs must be regulated by
the topography of the country, the ek-
tent of morass, swamps, lagoons and
lakes to be filed. The most thorough
surveys by practical and skilled engineers
should be made to determine their num-
Der and the volume of water they
should waste
The cost of such waste-Eeirs or
aprons, at Eve hundred OF even a thous-
and points along the length of the
leEees from Tennessee to the mouth of
the river, would be an insignificant figure
above the cost of the earth levees as
now constructed. They would. in fact,
form only another plan of diking, by
using at intervals timber instead of earth,
built at less height, riVeted with plank
aprons, over which the water with its
delta-making material will flow into the
low swamps and morasses during all
| seasons Of food.
Compared with the benefits to the
country, it would be economy should
they cost millions for in all time they
would be creating new and rich lands,
and percipitating the time when, in
Gods unchanging creative laws, to pre-
pare the earth for the growth and devel-
Opment of man under the Divine decree
to multiply and replenish the earth, ''the
mountains shall be made low and the
valleys exalted"
Illustrations without number are cop-
elusive of the truth of my theory aud
its practical application. Few men have
lived long IN the lower basin of the
Mississippi river without observing its
realization in the formation in a few
years of new islands and lands whenever
heavy floods and the drift they often |
lodge in the beds of tho river, have |
changed the direction of the current Of |
the stFssm so as to form eddies. Here |
the force of the stream cease to carry on
the delta-making material with its cur
rent. In single food large deposits
are precipitated, forming the foundation /
for new island, increasing in Its pro-
portions, with each succeeding food and |
in the lifetime Of a single individual
growing to the magnitude of a planting
habitatiOn. In fact these changes are
so sudden, and the accumulation Of delta
so extraordinary in very few years,
that pilots of the lower Mississippi,
absent or unemployed for such periods
of time, are lost in their bearings, and
must study the new landmarks to resume
with any degree of safety the helm of
the steamers shat thread the changing
channels of this mighty river.
It must be conceded, then, that much
of the delta making material in the
" .~ters of the Mississippi that would be
borne into the Gulf in its natural flow,
can be >oread out by artificial means,
and deposited in the swamps, marshes,
morasses, lagodqs, and bottom lakes Of
its lower basin. This will lessen 50 much
of the formation Of new land and bars
at the embouehures into the Gulf; and
while it lessons the constantly accUmula-
ting and eleYating alluVium there, that
sets back the water in the bed Of the
stream, increasing the obstruction to
navigation by enlsrging the bars and !
aecessitating the construction of higher
iikes to save the lower plantations from
nundation, it will, st the same constant !
rate. make new formations and new soil /
in the moraEses and swamps above, and !
in time raise all the upper basin to a /
higher level, drain or expel the waters of I
its lagoons and lakes, and reclaim for the
purposes of agriculture the most favored
valley Of the two hemispheres for the
growth of cotton and sugar. Such is
the rationale Of fact, so far as we know
Of the past. Reason and the geological
history of all similar great alluyial
basins confirm Its truth. In the progress
of civilization, science and man, the
elements are made to subserve his in
terest aud to aid ia the preparation Of
the wilderness and waste places for the
Of empire and the growth Of
the human race.
In the Old World the alluviums of
Holland and other low coutries have
been improved and made the most pro-
ductive and remunerative lands Of that
continent. Different systems for drain
age have been adopted, but they have all
been effected at enormous labor, during
long periods of time, and at almost
fabulous costs In the low lands of
Holland large lagoons and lakes were
emptied by the process of pumping
their waters to higher levels, and drain
ing them from such positions by canals
and bitches; but years we're spent in
this slow process, and royal exchequers
exhausted But the vast extent of
morass and swamp, and the great volume
and surface of water in the lagOons and
lakes in the lower Mississippi basin,
would render all mechanical means un-
availing in the regeneration Of wastes
Of their magnitude. For this reason, 1
propose TO subjugate to use for this great
achievement the mighty power Of the
everlasting food of the father Of waters.
That is unehanging, and by its own laws
of flow, and evaporation, and deposit,
will in less time perform this plan Of
reclaiming the wastes OF this great alluv-
ial basin than the application of the
powers Of all known mechanical forces,
directed by the highest practical skill Of
man. / therefore propose "to lay my
hand on the main" of this torrent, and,
bridling its accumulated waters, tame
their normal insubOrdinatiOn, and con-
vert it's neverfailing power to cumulative
use that will profit mankind in all pro-
gressive time.
This proposition and its theory will
doubtless present itself in a novel, and,
possibly, startling sense, to many scien-