The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-08-03


item people would call him, has been striding
over the globe; in his path terror, destruc-
ton, desolation, death. We cannot recall
season when there has been so many disasters
from the food and the storm. In France we
had the terrible calamities in the valley of the
Garonne-the windows of heaven opening, the
melted SHOWS flowing IN torrents from the
Pyrenees the river rising in furious power,
carrying bridges, harvests, homesteads, and
even villages in its current. We had the
storms in Hungary and Bohemia, the hail and
the rain falling upon the beautiful Danube
capital of Pesth, and working the devastation
OF conquering army. Then came
that fearful night at Geneva, when
Lake Leman, with its rising tides,
and the Juras, with their thunder and
lightning, and the frightful mass of hail
which seemed to come like an avalanche from
the hoary Alpine SUBMITS sacked the vener-
able city. Then came the unusual rains in
humid England, the swelling of the rivers, the
damage to the grain crops, and the fear, for
time, lest the calamities in France would be
repeated in Great Britain. Every mail has
brought US some story of the disasters from the
floods in Europe, until we almost began to
feel that the promise which was written as a
rainbow in the heavens had failed and we
were to have another deluge, another divine
punishment to this wicked world and another
| Ararat
Now it crosses the Atlantic, and the sad
tales we have read about our friends over the
sea are told of our own land. Two weeks
ago the crops of all kinds all over the
country promised so well that there was
every reason to believe we should have
year of extraordinary abundance. In few
localities rain had interrupted the harvest,
and at some points there were failures of the
small grain crops; but in general the yield
was very satisfactory, and over great part OF
the West 1t was unusually large and fine. At
the same time the news from the cotton region
of the South gave promise of full crop of
that staple. The extraordinary rainfall dur
ing the last two weeks in all the middle
Western States has now, to some extent,
changed this fair prospect In Ohio, Indi-
ana, Illinois and Missouri there seems to be
no doubt that the wheat crop has been seriously
damaged. In many places it has sprouted in
the stacks; in others, where the harvest was
backward, the grain has been destroyed in
the field. There have been overhows, and
all the Western rivers are banktull, with
prospect of still greater and disastrous rise.
Fortunately, considerable part of the
wheat had been harvested in the more South
ern regions, and is probably safe, and some
of the more important wheat producing local
tiles have not suffered from heavy rains.
| There is no reason yet to fear anything like
short crop, but there can be no doubt
that in many localities the farmers will suffer
serious losses. The corn everywhere, so tar
as we can learn by telegraph, appears to look
we'll, and probably thrives with the summer
rains.
But the news gathered by the Weather Sig
nal corps threatens the great planting popG-
lation in the Mississippi bottoms with very
grave calamity namely, an overflow of the
river-which, if it takes place, will destroy
their cotton crop and infict loss upon whites
and blacks which it is very unpleasant to
think of. The cotton has not promised SO
we'll for several years, and it is probable that
a larger area was planted this year on the rich
bottom lands of the Mississippi and its tribu-
taries than ever before. Ever since the war
the centre of the cotton growing area has
moved westward, and the fertile bottoms of
the Mississippi, Arkansas, Yazoo and Red
rivers have been developed with considerable
energy during the last three or four years. A
large emigration of planters and colored peo-
pie has taken place from the Eastern cotton
States westward. A great deal of land has
been cleared in Mississippi, Arkansas and
Northern Louisiana during the last two or
three years and put into cotton, the virgin
soil bearing heavy crops without manures.
Unfortunately oil, or most of this region
is subject to overflow. 1t is the one danger
to the planter in that region. The worm
troubles him but little, if at all The soil is
SO rich that he laughs at manures. He has
learned how to manage the colored laborer,
and the system Of planting on shares divides
the risk and incites the colored man to per-
sstent industry. But against an overflow
this, the more important part of the cotton
belt, is helpless; and the reports of rapid
rises in the northern tributaries Of the Mis-
sissippi will carry dismay into large region
whose population had tair hopes but few
weeks ago of an uncommonly fine crop
which would have enriched not only them
selves but the country at large.
The condition of the Mississippi levees is
unfortunately such that an overflow may be
very serious and widespread disaster. The
food which pours down the great river may
back up into all its southern tributaries a
rise of the Mississippi may mean the overflow
! of the whole Yazoo bottom in Mississippi, an
: immense region, which includes considera-
} bic part of the State 1t may mean disaster
to the planters on the Arkansas, the White
River. the Red River and the numberless