The Portland daily press., 1874-04-23

The LOUISIANA LEvEEs.-In view of the
suffering caused by the late crevasses on the
Mississippi, the following, taken from a care
fully written account of the Louisiana levees
which appears u the New York Times, is of
interest:
1t should never be forgotten that the alluvial
banks CT the Louisiana rivers are ali in their
natural state, more or less subject to inunda-
plane gradually descending from the river front
back until lost in the dead level, popularity
known as the swamp. Without exception
these river banks whether of the Mississippi,
Red River, or at the bayous Subordinate rivers)
connected with the parent streams, are more
fertile than any other portions of the State.
This fact is attested in, their primitive con-
dItion by prodigious growtbs of timber, by lux
uriant cane-brakes, by gigantic vines, and
tangled vegetation, yet even more by the be-
niicent sign that this inferior vegetation, how
ever abundant seldom overtops the better
products of the soil. The garden spots of
Louisiana land they are garden spots ndeet)
include the lands lying on each side of the
Lower Mississippi, commencing on the east
side, some forty miles below New Orleans, and
extending about one hundred and fifty miles,
until the high lands are reached at Baton
Rouge. On the west side the belt of rich land
continues in an unbrOken level through the
tire heart of the State, until it reaches the Ar
kansas line. The land on both sides of the
river for agricultural purposes varies in avail
able extent of surface from one to two miles,
and then, as We have already suggested, sinks
into or becomes lost in the swamp.
The "levee system" so called, was originally
commenced by few planters, living in the
vicinity of New Orleans, throwing up slight
embankments to protect their plantations from
the Spring tide. Very little effort was required
to do this, for the river 'above," in those
'earlier times" had wide waste to flood.
Gradualiv ulafi rha
extended upward and on both sides of the river,
and without thought of the eventual conse-
quences the small and great outlets We're one
after another closed. For years this outrage to
the descending flood was not proverbially re-
sented for great overaows were exceptional
cial importance the levees rapidly exten-ed in
solid embankment, including hundreds of
miles, reaching on the east side, from below
New Orleans to the high lands at Baton Rouge,
and on the west side from New Orleans to the
Arkansas line, and thus large portion of the
State, which had been annually overlooked, was
suddenly rescued from lnundation. Then it
was that the imprisoned current chafed in its
bed, and, each season, found a weak place
somewhere to discharge its waters. The result
was loss to the planters annually of a larger
sum of money than it would cost to carry out
perfect system of drainage To such an extent
had this madness reached of closing up outlets
that in ''the Concordia district there was
'the grand levee," a huge embankment pos
sibly forty feet high, under the protection of
Which were ere immense plantatiops their surfaces
many Instances the chfmneys Of the "master's
house" did not reach as high as the "water
line" marking the annual overflow of the river
before the grand levee" was built. Between
the Federal and Confederate forces, on the
Louisiana side of the river engaged in the
struggle for Vicksburg, this grand evee'' and
others were destroyed, and the surrounding
country was submerged.