The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-06-04
PROTECTION FROM OVERFLOW
IN THE
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
by
IT. y. Hardee, Civil Engineer.

I Dy the calaml1eS, now so dlSaStr0uSI'
felt by the agricultural community, con
vinces every one that the
LEvEE SYSTEM
as adopted and carried on for nearly
half century is
IMPERFECT AND UNRELIABLE,
and does not meet the requirements o
the great and incalculable interests in
volved. The question arises then
WHAT MORE Is NEEDED
and how shall it be executed?
The time has undoubtedly arrived
when every engineer who has had any
experience, or who entertains any views
should give them publicity, and it is thii
consideration for the public welfare
which has prompted the writer to pre-
pare this paper, and to furnish vha
crude ideas he may have on the subject
He knows the positions he will assume
may be criticised and combatted by other
engineers differing with him in opinion
but it is mainly by this mode of dis
cussion that new ideas can be evolved,
and that out of numerous theories adj
vanced some plan may possibly be adopt
ed and put in practice which may pre-
vent a recurrence Of the present troubles,
and make the Lower Mississippi Valley
what it was by nature intended to be,
THE AGRICULTURAL GARDEN SPOT OF
| THE WORLD.
A hasty outline Of the topography OF
this lower valley may prove necessary to
he IN trI0 on 1TNria-
| bend fully the suggestions which will
hereafter be made.
The lands embraced in the levee dis
trict or what are generally termed allu-
vial lands, may be considered as divided
into three distinct classes. First, the
canebrake lands, which are the highest,
and which are situated on the banks OF
! the river, and on the interior lakes and
bayous. Second, the open swamp lands
adjoining these cauebrakes, which are
| heavily timbered, but interior III eleva-
ton and third, the lakes, lagoons, and
cypress brakes, which are the lowest
and which permanently hold water.
The lands of the frst-class are, and
haye been, the only ones considered val
liable for clltivation, on account Of their
superior elevation, and these lands en-
brace only about thirty per cent. of the
entire area The lands of the third class
are on an average about eight or ten feet
below the elevation of the canebrakes,
and are the reservoirs of all the natural
drainage from the higher lands. The
| lands of the second and third-class com
bined, embracing about seventy per
cent of the entire alluvial area, form
together basin which is capable of hold
| ing an immense volume of water, before
the lands Of the irst-class, or the tiliable
| lands, are liable to be submerge.
THE LEvEE SYSTEM WAS INAUGURATED
on the banks Of the Mississippi prinei-
| pally for this purpose OF retaining the
! above described lands of the frst-class,
the larger proportion of which were al
most annually inundated by the overflow
| of the river in its lateral discharges, and
| thus rendered valueless. But in attempt
| ing to protect and reclaim the most
valuable of the classes of land by the
construction of a continuous and I'M
| broken line Of earth work or levee, the
water was necessarily excluded from the
entire area, and no provision has been
made up to the present time tor any
compensation to nature for even part
| of that OF which she has been deprived.
On the contrary, there has been an
IrNCoM PROMISING WARFARE UPON Ma
TURE
from The very beginning of levee con
struction, and that she is capable of re-
| bellng, and that too with a vengeance,
is too plainly manifest in the deplorable
scenes which we are daily witnessing
around US.
The advocates of the present system
/ have placed reliance in the hope and be
! lief that the concentration of the water
in one channel would so increase the
current as to fully compensate for this
exclusion of the water from its natural
outlets and basins; and that no material
| increase in the rise of the river would
result from an unbroken line of levees.
This hope and belief, however, have not
been fully realized, and the time has now
arrived when
SOME COMPROMISE WITH NATURE
should be attempted, which will have the
tendency at least to lessen the chances OF
future disaster The plan herein advo-
Gated is based on such a compromise,
and it is believed will afford of itself
very great relief; and as an auxiliary to
other requirements promises adequate and
permanent protection.
In every plantation on the Mississippi
River there are one or more canals or
large bitches leading from the front back
to the swamp or lowlands in the rear.
UTILIZE THESE ARTIFICIAL CoNDUITs
by constructing in the top or surface por-
ton of the levee
rIMBERED wAsTE-wAYs
opposite to each one, so that when the
annual high water comes, and after
reaching a certain elevation, it would
waste itself gradually through these
timbered ways, and thence by the canals
and bitches to the natural basins in the
rear from which it has been otherwise
artifcally excluded The waste ways
.bould be constructed so that when the
water reaches a point about three feet
below the high water mark, 1t would then
begin to waste itself As the water II
the river continued to rise, that which
would pass in this way through the tor
portion of the levee could be kept under
perfect control by a gate contrivance
which would allow only that quantity o.
water to escape which the bitches woule
he capable of conveying to the rear, with
ont in the least endangering the plan
tations. 1t will be thus seen that only
THE THEN EXISTING SURFACE wATEI
is dealt with by this process, and tina
there will eDsue no material disturbance
in the the river current, or interference
with the capacity of the river to make it
e,llast discba ro,e throuoh its regular chan