Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-09
THEMIssIssIPpI ILLUSTRATIONS.

the disastrous overflow Of the Mlssls
sippi may be prevented. They agree
in stating the important fact that the
construction of embankments on both
sides of the river, hundreds Of miles IL
length, operates to raise the bed of the
stream by silt deposits, which, without
levees, would fall in the adjacent
swamps. The fall of mud being on q
much narrower belt, the river must rise
in a body artifcially by the labor Of
man, as compared with all the sur.
rounding low country. Hence, when
ever an embankment gives way land II
is sure to break at some time) calam.
itous inundation is the natural conse.
quence.
Mr. WIN. Roberts discusses In the NelS
York Tribune the able paper from En-.
gineer Ellet, written some IS years ago
in favor of improving the navigation OF
the Ohio river by constructing large
reservoirs to hold back the water that
causes foods, and let it out IN seasons
when steamboat navigation is nearly,
and In some places quite, suspended
Mr.. Roberts estimates the whole area
drained by the Mississippi and Its
afluents at a million and a half square
= miles, and that the watershed of not
over 100000 square miles. could be thus
retained IN artificial ponds and lakes,
This would leave 100000 square
miles area to send into the Father
of Waters" and its undiminished con-
tributions. Levees would still beneeded
So far as wehave seen, not one OF these
civil engineers has brought into the
discussion the element of agriculture
as having any influence on either the
precipitation of water from the clouds,
or the proportion of it that runs into
rivers, and whether in a shorter or
longer time. The Mississippi basin has
enterprising farmers and planters that
may be counted by millions, and their
aggregate industry is well worth study
ing In its relations to rainfall, rivers
and climatology generally. Prairie
grass thick on the ground checks very
much the flow of water into all streams,
and thereby lessons the rise and extent
of foundations. Primitive forests, with
their mass of fallen leaves, brush and
trees, operate IN the same way
in all timbered districts. Transform
thewoods and the prairie into corn-felds
and cotton-felds, or into nearly naked,
uncultivated commons, and more water
Will run off from one hundred acres In
twenty hours during hard rain, than in
twenty days from well set grass land,
or from natural forest All farmers
know that it is titled earth in uneven
fields that washes, and sometimes bad
". Had this ground been IN sod ike
blue grass, or Bermuda, no gullies
would have been formed. But is that
the right system of agriculture which
forms gullies by the million in the
great watershed of the Mississippi,
causing calamitous floods in the Cum
berland, the Tennessee and the Missis-
sippi itself?
Engineers take very narrow view
of this water question when they
look only to a few ponds and lakes to
be made by human labor. A
much larger quantity of rain water
should be stored up In the ground where
it falls to make grass, fat sheep and
wool, fat cattle, mules and horses for
service in Europe, as well as IN Amerl-
ca. Agricultural engineers ave made
this suggestion during the last forty
wears, but the public steadily refuses to
consider meteorology and agriculture
as having any relationship to each
other. Hence the water of the lower
Mississippi is held in part, by civil en-
gineers. in a narrow, broken hogs
trough, half filled with mud, and run
ming over on both sides.
It is eminently an agricultural prob
lem how best to dispose Of the ram
water that annually falls IN the United
States, and especially in the fruitful
basin of the Mississippi. We say 1t
should be largely utilized where 1t falls
and no uncomfortable part of the sur
plus be employed in the economical IT.
rigation of pastures, meadows and
titled crops. Let true science be
brought to the aid of agriculture by
men who have made its study the busi-
ness of their lives, and it viii be found
that Providence gives us not one drop
too much of rain and snow water. City
and college bred engineers, by over
looking agricultural climatology and
the remarkable capacity of the first SIX
foot of earth to hold water IN suspen-
sion for all the uses of good husbandry,
do little more than help government
snend money on levees that must be
,a;sed and strengthened so long as the
Missouri shall send its volume OF
muddy water down to the Gulf. BY
actual experiment we knowthat cubic
foot of soil will holdover twenty pounds
Of water in suspension, without drop
ming any. Fill the ground with water
and not one of our dry summers or
autumns will find our corn crops cut
short from a lack of ram
O1o LEWIS has not expressed an m
So, to devote his share Of the pronts
UenI aI 4on,noyance crusade to the