New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-05-29
THROUGH THE SOUTH.
THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI AND THE GULF
fyp1ToRlAI CORRESPONDENTS or THE TRlBUNBl

THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI AND THE GULF
tvnrroRttI CORRESPONDENCE or THE TRlBUNBl
HOUSTON. Texas May 20.-I presume there Is no
richer soil on earth than that foImed p, '"0
animal overflow of its banks by the mighty MISSES
sippi That inundation has been checked NOT P,o-
cluded by the artificial Levees, WHICH, 'lo"su ~
ally advantageous, seem to me- on broader vlew'
ra;stoLon The current of the Father of Waters Is
IN the main so resistless when the river is at mig"
stage and is so surcharged with the richest eart'
that n has only to he modified not arrested 10 III
Apce il 20 commence deposit of fertllizing seui-
mont Now If its banks were so adjusted tha' "
xropld NJ once overflow them along its whole COURSE
from Cairo TO the Balize il could never rise SIX i0'
above Them and its foundations, no longer uo'"''".
ING would still further enrich ana giau-
ually though slowly elevate the adjacent region,
7 dstrust the permanent efficacy OF any aituiclai
yevees III is not practicable to pile DOth banks VI
Great river for full thousand miles yet, without
Milling. nothing will surely prevent the unuerlhihlng
Of the highest and irmest Levecs so that tney VIII
crumble into the current and be swept away caus-
ing creasses which human power Is lhaueNH',o "
close till the river falls. predict, therefore, tnat
leyeeing will fail to keep the Mississippi Wlthn LIS
hanks: and while do not suggest any alternative
submit that il were better to bear existing evils
than 20 seek their cure through agencies likely to
create evils still greater.
iudge from what have seen that the surface OF
most Of the acres Of Louisiana accounted land Is
lower than that Of the adjacent rivers aud bayous
Naturally. swamps nd marshes abound, mainly COW
cred by thick forests of Live Oak Cypress, and some
smaller trees usually standing in six to twelve
inches Of water and intersected by small bayous,
averaging four to six feet in depth of water, the
congenial home Of the Alligator, they would be
II the Frog and the Duck if the Alligator were not
fond Of a meat diet. The grey moss which trails
from most of tie trees in these swamp-forests Is
much admired by the inhabitants, and ia gathered
20 Gil mattresses. Very little has yet been done
toward draining these vast swamps, because of their
very slight inclination toward the Gulf, in which
direction alone can water be made to flow away
from them. Ultimately they will be sevcrally
leveed or dyked and then pumped dry by steam !;
bnt not these many years. Meantime the rela-
lively dry land which separates them, being
two or three feet higher, has been
largely improved and cultivated, though
some of il has been neglected since the War; Cane
and Cotton are grown ON part of the plantations;
Com quite generally; Potatoes and what we call
Sweet Potatoes. with Corn and some Cotton, by the
Blacks on their petty holdings had been told that
The Black women no longer work in the fields; but
hey were at work on most of the patches we passed
between Ncw-Orleans and Brashear, 50 miles west
ward on the Atchafalaya, where we took boat for
Galveston. In many places, husband wife and
one OF two children hOeing side by side; and,
though this kind Of Agriculture is not very
aficiont, their crops generally looked well Where
,heir patches are easily flowed, part Of each was
often devoted to Rice, whereof the culture in this
late is rapidly extending l understood that it is
Considered the surest and most profitable gain-crop
grown in Louisiana, while it requires no costly
machinery TO fit it for sale. The grower takes it in
ITS rough state TO the mill, where he receives 100
pounds OF the cleaned or huled grain for each 100
pounds in the hull. called paddy" poor man can
40 better growing Rice than Cotton.
doubt that Oneeighth of the area of Louisiana is
o-day under tillage while she grows little or no
other than wild grasses Of slight value She has
some millions of acres of thin poor, sandy soil in her
northern and eastern sections, usually covered with
Pine some Of it of good size and quality the rest
small and worthless. Leaving this to grow timber,
he residue is exceedingly fertile yet less than half
If il is arabic without the aid of Steam. By-and-
l5y bayous will be dredged, dykes or levees con-
structed large Enclosures pumped dry, then plowed
and tiled, by gigantic Steam-EneineS; and then
| Louisiana will rapidly take rank among the most
productive and populous OF the States composing
Iour ITnion H.G,