Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-08-05
Opinions of the Press.

Little Rock Gazette.l
The st. Louis Republican say in the
district extending from Kansas in the
west, to central Ohio on the east, with
st. Louis as a center, the rains have
been unparalleled. 1.-THE deluge began in
May, and is not yet endei on the first f
August. It has been rain, ram, rain,
with short intermissi0ns, throughout
nearly the whole season from planting
to harvesting. In May aud June the
showers were accompanied with light
ming and thunder and at times with
high winds; but through July these con-
comitants were wanting; it was simply
a streaming rain nearly every day and
night, and frequently twice or thrice
in the twenty-fOuF hours, without any
attendant cOmmotion in the upper air,
Farmers estimate that there has fallen
one heavy soaking rain day on an av-
erage from the first of June to the first
OF August. The actual rainfall by meas
urement, as furnished by the United
States signal office at ST. Louis from the
first Of May to the first of August, wss
1885 inches" The average rainfall in
this region is, for year, about twenty
four inches.
New Orleans Picayune.
1t begins to appear that the planters
OF the Arkansas and, perhaps, the upper
Mississippi bottom lands are in danger
of losing the fruits of their labor just as
they have become tangible and assured.
The continued rains along the valleys Of
the Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee and Cum
berland rivers, have precipitsted into
the Mississippi above Memphis so vast o
volume of water that the sudden rise
threatens local inundatioG of very Sc
rious proportions. As low down as
Vicksburg, even, the influence Of the
freshets is sensibly felt, and here at New
Orleans, it will be perceived, the river
has been forced up TO within six feet Of
the high water mark Of last year.
There can be no doubt that the prospect
for ths bottom country, between Mem
phis and the Louisiana line, ID eGi-
Dently discOursging; the more so since
OveIflOWs st this advanced season Of
the year involve a far greater loss of
property than in the spring. The
crops are practically made now; the Ia
Dor, material and money have been eX-
pended, and almost the entire substance
aud capital of the planter are at stake.
To be inundated under such ciTcum-
stances is to be absolutely ruined. 1t is
to be oVerthTOwn after every nerve and
faculty and muscle have been eXerted to
the last degree, and when the hope and
power OF recuperatiOn are exhausted.
Should the forebOdings of the Associated
Press man at Memphis be realized, the
Mississippi valley will suffer calamity
more crushing and irremediable than it
has ever experienced befOre-a calamity
from which it would be well-nigh i'm
possible to recover.
Nashville Banner.l
IL there be any comfort in the hOmely
proverD that "misery loves company"
those Of Us in Tennessee disposed to
complain of the untowaIdness Of Old
Probabilities in our State, in the too free
dispensatiOn of aqueous favUTs ami con-
sequent damage To crops hitherto prom
Using, can afford to exercise some philO-
s0phical patience when we contemplate
the far greater calamities which have
Overtaken our brethren of the west For,
despite the excess of rain in our State,
and loss by sprOuting Of some wheat,
there was an unprecedented crop plant
ed, and vast proportion OF it saved aud
housed and sold. Even at the worst,
there will be an enormous corn crop
raised in Tennessee and the south, anu
the present indications from the
west are that there will be
demand for it-reversing the old order
of things, and the south becoming
the north VESTS cODlnliSSGriGt instead of
the northwest the south's. Here and
there in Tennessee, however, the rains
and floods have been particularly disas.
trous. This is noticeably the case along
the upper Cumberland, where acres upon
acres of corn, wheat and tobacco nave
been utterly ruined. The greatest suffer
eTs are the farmers who cultivate creek
and river bottom lands, subject to over
flow. In the country south Of Tennes-
see, strange to relate, the greatest dam
age threatened is from drOuth-cJm-
plants reaching us from many portions
OF Alabama aud Georgia, Of a distress
ing, and in some places alarming, scar
city of rain. Fine crops in those States
have already been lost for want OF it.