St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-07-19
Closing the AtchafaIaya.
west Baton Rouge sugar Planter.

comes to US with a lengthy article
under the above caption, in which
the assertion is made that the clos
ing Of the Atchafalaya would prove
of immense benefit to our people,
asst would throw an additional vol
ume of water into the Mississippi,
thus increasing the current in that
river and compelling it, as natural
consequence, to s'scour out" or
deepen the channel.
theoretically, this sounds plausi-
bic enough practically, it would
work poorly, we fear. Experience
has shown that the volume Of water
that comes down the Mississippi is
annually increasing, and with our
present defective levee system it is
utterly impossible to hold this ever
increasing volume of water In check.
tits estimated that the Atchafalaya
carries off fully one-fourth as much
water as the Mississippi. It is
therefore natural to assume that if
the enormous surpIusage that is car
ried off by the former river be
thrown into the latter, the increased
amount would be 50 great that it
would be impossible for any levees
ever built, no matter how Well-con-
structed, to stand the force of the
water. The Washington paper
then goes on to show how the bot
tom Of this river would be secured
out and deepened." When the At
chafalaya is closed it will be high
time for the people of alluvial Loui-
siana to "scour out Ito the high
lands.
And, after all, has the theory Of
securing out the channel of the riy-
Ell ever been demonstrated to be a
recognized fact? What assurance
have we, beyond the statement Of
scientific engineers, that the current
Of the Mississippi is as swift at the
bottom as it is at the surface?
Tt seems te us that there has al
ways been too much theory about
the methods to be adopted to i'm
prove the Mississippi river, and one
Of the greatest theoretical fallacies
ever sprung upon an intelligent
people is the securing out theory,
which urges that by increasing the
volume of water in the river bottom,
in due process of time, would be-
come so deepened that in the course
of years the greatest foods would
not bring the river above the bat
ture. Even if there were any virtue
in this method as a remedy that
would prove effective eventually,
the advocates of this theory seem
to loose sight of the fact that this
remedy is as bad if not worse than
the disease itself, as it is more than
probable that the securing out pro-
cess would require years for demon
stradon, during which time over
flows would be so disastrous and
frequent that there would be very
few people left in the lowlands to
witness the result.
Another and equally absurd theo-
ny put into practice has been the
closing of the various outlets that In
former years carried off an immense
volume of water and relieved to a
great extent the strain upon our le-
wees. This thing of attempting to
make q pint cup accommodate a
quart of water has been weighed in
the balance and found wanting.
In this connection we do not
deem it improper to indulge the
hope that no attempt will be made
to rebuild the Morganza levee,
which never should have been re-
built after it broke in IA. 1t is the
opinion of many of our most intelli-
gent people that had this great levee
broken sooner than it did during
the recent high water, other portions
Of Louisiana would have been SPAR
ed the disastrous crevasses that oc-
! cured
Il is now becoming evident that
no leYee can be constructed that
will withstand the terrible pressure
that is brought to bear during high
water upon the Grand Levee, owing
to its peculiar and unfavorable sit
uation. The building Of this levee
has cost the State immense sums of
money and been productive Of no