Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-29
Extent of the Mississippi valley.

L 4ANOAy VI AAeC A&AAOoAESAVRA ullCys
The Mississippi is not only the longest
river in the world. but the valley or
basin which it drains the greatest. II
occupies the whole central portion of
this continent, from the Rocky Monn-
tains, on the one side, to the Alleghanies
or the Blue Ridge, on the other. cover.
ing an area of 1,23S. GAG square miles
considerably larger than the area of the
thirteen original States and exceeding
the combined areas of England, Wales
Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain,
Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italv
and Turkey. Nearly every acre of
it is good and fertile land. There
are no sterile mountains here, no deserts
no arid, rainless plains. Nowhere in the
world is there so much good land living
in one body. The basin of the Amazon
which alone equals it in size, falls far
short of it in fertility, for there are in
Vulnerable barrens and wildernesses
bordering the great stream of South
America, whereas with the execution
of the most western portions of the
Arkansas and Red river valleys an
the basin of the Mississippi ig
susceptible of cultivation. 1t is believed
that the aridity of the staked plains and
alkali plains of the far West is exagger.
ated, simply because no such thing as
the cultivation of crops has been at
tempted there, aud that they will be
found, when emigrants reach them 70
be like the celebrated "barrens" of In
diana, now the most productive portion
of that State.
But, OF the Mississippi valley, This
term naturally includes all the country
drained by our great river In their
speeches on this subject the orators have
been geographically very incorrect II
has been the custom to estimate tbis
valley by States and Territories. and TO
declare that it included twenty.one
States, as, for instance, Ohio. Wisconsin
Indiana, etc This is not fair or
proper estimate. A large portion of Ohio
lies in the Mississippi basin, but not
all of it, and it is a great mistake to
credit all the population and production
of ''the Buckeye" State as belonging to
the valley. Cleveland, Toledo, San
dusky and the fertile region lying along
Lake Erie belong to an entirely different
section to the lake region. They have
no connection with the Mississippi, and
their interests are as different from those
of the valley as the interests of Buffalo
and Boston.
In the same way all Wisconsin is usu.
ally included in the Mississippi valley.
although the most populous portion Of
that State, lying on Lake Michigan, does
not, in any sense, belong to it.
The only proper way to estimate the
Mississippi valley is by the drainage
basin of the great river. This gives the
exact extent of country tributary to the
Mississippi, or the true Mississippi valley
Estimated on this basis, the Missis-
sippi valley contains either all OF part of
of % States and Territories New York.
Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia.
North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama MIS-
sissippi, Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wis
consin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Ar
kansas, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado.
and the Territories of Wyoming, Mon
tana, Dakota, New Mexico and the In
dian Territory
The country embraced in this is of the
most diverse character, now mountain
Gus, now plain, now semi-frigid. now
torrid. It's productions are equally va
ried, and it yields every crop known
S this country.
The Mississippi valley is naturally di-
vided into six sub divisiOns-the basins
Of the Ohio, Upper Mississippi, Missouri.
Lower Mississippi, Arkansas and Red.