Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-08-13

land finally grows so narrow, that a
cut of takes place.
But these are not the only difficult
ties. that Ikea great mountain rise up
in the face Of the levee system, which
the scientifcs, whose reports the Gov
eminent will only listen to for infor-
nation on this subject, appear to never
have thought Of in all their estimates
as to to the cost of building levees,
with which to fence the river within
the limits of its natural banks of
about a mile wide. That is the in
erased surface drainage as the lands
ia the Northwest are rapidly brought
into cultivation, for every furroW is q
drain, conducting the water of over
| the surface, which hastens the water
on down to the lower valley, in shOr-
ter time, and in greater accumulative
quantities.
The annual foods which deluge this
great cotton field are thenatural result.
/ Again, they certainly never have
/ taken into consideration the extent of
this vast area of water they have in
vain tried to fence in. It covers the
| entire bottom for fifty miles wide,
l with an average depth of ten feet,
which, / penned in between banks one
mile wide, sufficiently high, to hold
t, they would have to be five hun
bred feet high, provided there was as
much current in the swamp as in the
/ river. which is not the cas- however.
| But It is on an average fully One-hfth;
/ then the Ievees would have to be q
hundred feet high; then Memphis,
Vieksburg and Natchez would become
low lands. Then, what viii be the
| fate Of the bottoms?
But was this possible, and were
levees made sufficiently high TO hold
! the water, the country would be ru-
ined for agricultural purposes, for there
would be no water, and without water
there would be no evaporation, and
without that there would be 10 rain,
without which vegetation would
cease. For proof Of this l have only
to refer you to the history OF Egypt
under the reigns OF NebuchadneZzar
and Alexander. The former leveed
TIE Nile and dried up vegetation. The
latter made canals through the coun-
try, and at certain periods, with great
inconvenience to the inhabitants and
loss of property, he cut the levees,
opened his canals, flooded the cOun-
try and restored navigation. Thus in
as brief a manner as possible have L
| thrown together a few OF the leading
facts showing the folly Of the levee
| system. You will very naturally ask,
| then, by what system do you propose
/ to save the lower valley, so important
to the whole country?
Beginning at the bottom first, 1 pro
/ pose q canal outlet and cut Oft system,
| and will first state two simple ilustra-
| lions. First, ior instance, take a bar
rel full Of water with a pipe pouring
water in at the tOp,and another at the
bottom letting it out precisely az fast
as the one at the top lets it in, so it
will run and remain full. But sup
pose we put in another small pipe at
the top, as represented by the in
creased surface drainage of a few ad-
ditiOnaI thousand acres OF land
brought into cultivation; then the
barrel will run over at the top unless
you build your barrel higher and
higher to an Insufficient extent.
Unless you do what? you will natu-
rally say. Let the water OIL by put
ting in another pipe or boring another
hole at the bottom. Now which Is
the cheapest and most reasonable?
You must say, bore the hole at the
bottom. Then if that is best with a
barrel of water, show me the a S
why it will not hold good with a river
containing millions of barrels of water?
SeeOndly-If you have a plantation
with a crooked creek running through
it which OVerfioWs its banks and bot
toms contiguous every big rain, would
yOu not first commence at the bottom,
making every possible outlet, then go
on up cutting of the crooked bends
and STRENGTHENING the stream, short
ening the distance, increasing the u r
rent, causing the water to pass OH
more rapidly, and, as a natural conse-
duenee, cease to overflow its banks.
Treat the crooked Mississippi in the
same way, and you will have the same
results. These two simple and COM
mon sense illustrations cover the case
of the Mississippi river, and l defy
and challenge all the book engineers
in America to cOntrovert it.
Now, as to the way to accomplish
this great work, l cannot better state
than L have already done in a letter
which you published sometime ago.
The following is an extract
"If half the money were spent in
turning the Mississippi river into
Lake BOrgne, at Stewards plantation,
ten miles below the city OF New Or
leans, that they throw away trying to
stop crevasses and mend broken
Ievees, they would have no need of
levees. On the contrary, New Or
leans would now be fourteen feet
above high water mark, or, in other
words, the river would now be down
to tide. water level; for the moment
the Mississippi discharges its water
into Lake BOrgne, then we have the
Gulf of Mexico Water-level brought
up to the city, which is fourteen feet
below the present high water. This
would not only save New Orleans and
the lower coast, but, by rapidly draw
ing the water of, would lower the
river fully five feet at NatcheZ. Then,
if they would open every and all out
lets by which water could be carried
from the river to the Gulf on the east
side, as high as Pass Manchac, and on
the west side as high as the mouth OF
Red river, this would lower the water
in the river on the lower coast; at the
same time make room and increase
the current to NatcheZand Vicksburg,
and at the latter place lessen the vol
ume of water four or five feet more.
Then it would not be a very expensive
work to dam up Red river and turn
that stream and all its tributaries into
the Gulf, through the Atchaialaya and
BerWick's Bay. By keeping this vast
volume of water out of the river, we
still make room and increase the cur
rent, and draw the water of more
rapidly from that above, so that up
as high as Greenville the water will
not rise by eight feet as high
as it now rises. Thus, by COM
menciDg at the bottom first and
working on up, we have pre-
pared the lower section, from Vicks-
burg down, for a cutoff system, by
which the river can be shortened fully
two hundred miles more-in all, three
hundred miles to Cairo. With this
shortened distance and increased cur
rent, the river can never overflow its
banks, and fill up at the bottom as
now, but will continually, like a
mountain stream, wash out and get
deeper and deeper. This plan will re-
claim every acre of land, without a
foot o friver levee, from overflow, that
is not below low water mark"
The New York Tribune, in which
the above extract was published, and
whose editor has lately written on
the subject, says: "This is not the
precise plan set forth in our letter, but
is closely akin to it. We insist that
the true course is so to deplete the
lower Mississippi as to bring its sur
face below the levees, instead of
vainly trying to raise the levees so
that the river cannot overflow Oh
AL-nnAl LLn-n mhn Innr ~ /