Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-04-30
THE YAZOO DELTA.
Counting Up the Losses from the Re-
cent Disastrous FlOOds-A Plucky,
Energetic People.
Business and Crop PrOspeets-Levee
Diseussions-LOcal Affairs, Poll
ties, and the Courts.

GREENvILLE, Miss, April 26.-In this,
the most important town and radiating cen
ter of trade and traffic of the cotton belt, the
planters cougregate often and interchange
views and opinions on food matters, Losses,
planting interests, river data, and general
business prospects OF the bottom. These
free discussions bring out fund Of informa
ton, from which very correct view Of the
situation may be generalized and approx
mate losses and damage by the flood ascer-
tanned. 10 casting up their losses, however,
l fnd that no two agree in the general esti-
mate, and it is difficult TO gain clear and
exact information. There is an abiding fear
that to report full losses in individual cases
would ipjure credit, whereas TO aggregate
the damage would tell sufficiently correct
story and equalize the effect. Your CORE
spondent has, therefore, thought proper TO
adopt the per cent method in speaking of
losses by the overflow and collateral facts
growing out of it. In calculating damages
in this manner, of course it is not TO be pre-
sumed that strict accuracy can be observed;
but a sufficiently clear idea of the great
calamity can be obtained from the figures to
satisfy the public that the flood OF 1882 was
no trifing matter in the history of this rich
bottom country. Take this (Wsshington)
county, for example-probably the least
damaged county in the delta-and the sum
OF its losses in
CATTLE, HOGS AND POULTRY
alone gives famine outlook to the common
people. and brings the food question home
to the masses with direful forebodings of
want in tie immediate future. The loss in
cattle foots up about seventy-hve per cent
best grazing lands OF the country being stu
ated east and northeast of Deer creek and in
the region of Black and Williams's bayous,
and the Boeue Phaliah swamps, where cattle
have an immense range, and where the
waters from the breaks in Bolivar county
poured through all that section with irresist-
able force and depth, carrying everything
before them. Those portions OF the county
named we're, for similar reasons, the resort
for immense droves of hogs, and they were
swept clean which added to their loss in
other localities, makes eighty-five per cent on
hogs. On poultry, the pride OF the bottom
laborer, the loss is less, but will amount to
say fifty per cent. the county over. The
above named losses are the more serious be-
cause they fall principally on the poor plan
tation laborers who, as all know, save but
little of wages and who are dependent upon
their COWS and calves, pigs and chickens, as
recourse of supplies between seed-time and
harvest.
THE LOSS IN WORKSHOPS,
horses and mules, either drowned outright
or killed by gnats, or rendered almost worth
less bv starvation, corn and fodder being I
lost, will amount TO thirty per cent. at least.
aud perhaps forty per cent. The loss in fencss
apd ca bins is very severe, and can hardly be |
correctly estimated. To say that of the |
10000 acres Of farm lands in cultivation
and under fence in the county, at least one |
half are almost entirely denuded OF fence |
and the lighter cabins, would put the truth |
in nutshell, and leave the reader, familiar |
with planting and the cost of such improve |
ments, 10 make his own calculation of loss |
to the county in these items. These losses, |
you will readily zee, entail a heavy burden |
upon the planting interests OF the delta. |
For what is true of this county In these |
particulars, is also true OF less favored |
counties in the bottomc and in double ratio. |
1t would therefore seem but natural in snch |
circumstances that the people would be
downcast aud discouraged. But such is not
the csse with a very large majority. They
are the
PLUcKIFsT SET OF PEOPLE
you ever saw They have gone to work
with a will, and as fast the water gets
off their lands the seed is put into the |
ground, and to-day one-half the cultivated
land of the county is in seed-corn, cotton,
oats, grass and Irish potatoes. The cut
worms are PLAYING havoc with the corn, but
cotton generally looks WELL with good
stand, and is being chopped out. Tue
weather has not been favorable for rapid
growth Of vegetation the last two weeks, be-
ing too cold. Bot on the whole
BUSINESS AND CROP PROSPECTS
are Frightening, and although times are
hard, money scarce, and the county still
brealhes heavily under the flood incubus,
the whispers OF life and hope are becoming
more audible every hour. The 6espairipg
look of the people two months ago has
given place to the comparatively cheerful
countenance as the signs of the times presage
an average crop and the revival of business.
Some go SO far as to predict full crop of
cotton, and an average yield OF other crops
if we have no June rise. This prediction,
viewed in the light of other years OF over
flow, does not seem wild or unreasonable.
Hence the cheerfulness, born of experience,
which sustains the people.
LEvEE MATTERS ARE IN ORDER,
and are being discussed freely by our people.
In short, they are the main topic of CONVEX
sation, and since the advent of President
Arihuf's favorable message to Congress on
that subject, hope has revived an hundred
fold, and that justice will be done the great
valley so long neglected by the government
seems almost certain. At any rate it is a
HOuAOC Va pressure " " thAhh 5O,
and they are buoyed with new hope in an
ticipation of future security in their homes
and the protection to life and property in
the lowlands. The people here, however,
are divided between the two systems-levee
and outlet-but am inclined to think that
the prevailing opinion is in favor of a COM
bination of the two systems for the Yazoo
delta But will reserve the discussion Of
this question for future report. l will give
you a full report of local affaira in my next.
Meantime let me say that Circuit Court meets
here next Monday, ours being the only
county in the district in which the court
will be held this spring. Politics are taking
an upward turn, and prospective candidates
for this, the Third district are being brought
out and discussed. The district is over
whelmingly Republican, on the basis of the
color line, presuming all the whites to be
Democrats aud all the negroes Republicans.
But would venture to suggest that that
classification won't hold good. S.