The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-03-31
MISSISSIPPI FLOODS.
I'm the Louisiana sugar Regional
Disc0ura.tng Picture Of Ruin and
De~OlatiOu.

I'm the Louisiana sugar Regional
Disc0uragtng Picture Of Ruin and
DesOlatiOn.
Baton Rouge Telegram to Chicago Times.
Your correspondent has been drifting down
the great river for more than week, and
reached Baton Rouge tonight. There is a
sameness about the spectacle, but it does not
grow tiresome. Something il constantly aris-
ing to relieve the monotony Of overmuch desc
la.ion. Villages settlements, plantations and
corrals OF cabins are to be seen every few miles
along the banks, half under water. Buildings
Oh ground forty feet above the river at low
water can scarcely be seen now, the flood hay-
ing enveloped them. Great steamers drawing
ten feet Of water pillow across bars and
banks the tops Of which could be seen from
the pilot-houses In summer time. The
inhabitants of the submerged settlements
ching to their homes with tenacity and despera-
ton, determined not to go as long as there is a
plank left to float on. At every landing refu-
gees from the interior are taken on board.
Their recitas are distressing in the extreme.
Many say they are ruined. and that they will
never return. Others curse their luck, but say
they will try it again. At Natchez the river is
only twenty-five miles wide, narrower than at
any point south OF Columbus, Ky. The effects
of the big breaks about Milhken's bend are felt
for seventy-6ve miles down the river. and near
Vidala, opposite NatcheZ other crevasses let
the water through on the land further down.
For twenty miles north and south of the mouth
Of Red river the spectacle il even more appall-
ing than ut the mouths OF the Arkansas and
st. Francis rivers.
Here the damage Is very great, not only to
stock and machinery, but the growing crops az
well 1t takes three years to make . sugar
crop, and an overflow means Its entire ruin.
That is what has come upon the district de-
scribed. The water is by no means confined to
the limits pointed out, but that is as far as the
writer has been able 10 reach by personal OBJ.
servations and inquiry. The lower delta Of the
Mississippi, from Baton Rouge south, is all
bottom or fat land. The river at Baton Rouge
has an elevation OF less than fifty feet above the
sea-level, and water enptied in upon the Land
below that point would scarcely know whether
to run up hill or down, unless pushed by
power behind. The force Of the volume COM
ing up behind is all that keeps the drift moving
toward the gulf, and the motion ia oftentlmes
scarcely perceptible. The sluggishness of the
lower waters Is the reason why the drainage Of
the upper river is not more rapid, and explains
why the river Is 80 much slower falling than it
is rising. The basin is full, and the incline is
so very slight that the water merely dribbles out
over the top, where the crops are In the ground
in Arkansas, Mississippi and Upper Louisiana.
The lower parishes will still be inundated.
FEARS FOR THE FUTURE-wHAr WILL FOLLOW
THE FLOOD.
Daily contemplation has robbed the food OF
many of the horrors that appalled, the residents
in the early stages OF the deluge, and the people
are already laying plans for the future and de-
termining what they will do when the waters
subside. What will be the result of it all? is
the question the Times correspondent has been
asking everybody with whom he has been in
contact whose views were worth having. Will
the planters lie down, or will they raise cotton
ffao of tl,sao
visited them? III many instances the reply is
that the country is ruined, and that nothing re-
mains to do but move out and abandon the fight.
The cooler-headed and more thoughtful men
talk differently and are not 80 cast down.
They look the catastrophe squarely in the face
and canvass the. situation logically. AS long ago
as last July, the banks of New Orleans, st.
Louis and New York cut down their lines of
discount with the Mississippi valley and other
cotton-raBing districts about one-third. Bor-
rowers in the overfowed stations may look for
a still further drawing of not less tn an 20 per
cent, making a curtailment OF at least so per
cent. on their borrowing leverage In nine
months. Beside this, many are disposed To
anticipate an entire failure of this years crop.
Thousands and tens Of thousands Of
head OF stock have been entirely
DESTROYED, and fences and buildings and farm
machinery washed away or ruined by the
wholesale. That is the bleak and discouraging
side OF the picture. There il another and
brighter side. Unle there should be contnu-
alton of the extraordinary and protracted rain
fall that occasioned the flood the water at and
below Cairo will pass away by the 1st of May.
leaving the land in splendid condition for plant
ing. II ~ an established fact that cotton OH
overlooked land will require full month less
time TO mature than that planted on dry land.
The sediment left by the receding water inn
parts marvellous terminating force TO the
soil, and vegetation advances with as
tonishing rapidity. The water leaves the
land in splendid condition for cultivation, and
but so per cent. OF the labor usually required
to plant crop will be needed this spring for
the work. There il the best authority FOR the
statement that cotton and corn planted on
overfiowed land abogt the middle OF May will
yield fine crop, unless something unusual
should arise to prevent its natural develop
ment. 1t will be seen that the situation, while
full of discouraging features, is by no means
desperate. The river country has amazing re-
Operative power, and good crop will go far
toward repairing the damage resulting from
the flood and restoring the credit of the land
owners and producing classes.