The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-10-02
REcLAlMINa TIDE MARSHES.
Their Utility for Agricultural Purposes
The Sea-1Iarsh Soil of louisiana
IL


The department of agriculture at
Washington has just issued a volume de
voted TO the reclamation of tide marshes
and their utility for agricultural puT
poses 1t is estimated by the department
that the area of the country for such pur
poses could be increased at least 10000
square miles-an area of territory as
large as the state Of Y ermont-by taking
not only the marshes on the ocean border
but those farther inland, fringing bays,
sounds and rivers. 1t also contains re-
ports from various parts of the country
showing what has already been done in
the way of retaining these waste lands,
which were Of value only for their crops
of salt hay
The principal reclamatinns are in New
jersey along the Maurice nv IT; in Penn
sylvania on the Delaware, where one
farmer has a splendid farm of l eco
acres safe from the highest tides in
North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia, where valuable lands have been
diked for rice; in Louisiana and Texas,
where they have been reclaimed for rice
and sugar cane culture and cattle ranging,
and Washington territory, where nearly
one-h half of the area formerly occupied by
the channels of Puget sound, amounting
to H. J0 square miles have been converted
into rich, arabic lands. In California
also, at the mouths of the Sacramento and
San Joaquin rivers, where there are nearly
! / 900, 600 acres of fresh-water marshes,
80, 900 have been reclaimed and are among
the most fertile lands in the whole state,
being devoted mostly to Embarrassing.
In this connection The New Orleans
PiSayune calls attention to the reclama-
ton carried on by the Louisiana Land
Reclamation company, which has saved
10, 900 acres in Terre Bonne and St
| Mary's parishes. The soil of the sea
marsh in that region is black mass of
decayed vegetable matter capable of being
drained and of growing any of the prod
ucts of the state, while the subsoil is a
stiff, blue clay well adapted to dixie build
ing Speaking of the COmpanys opera
tons The Picayune says:
"The land was broken by steam plows
plying between parallel canals and oper
ated by the engines of two steam
dredging g machines floating in the canals
at opposite sides of the fields Rice,
( lutte, vegetables etc, have beeen cult
waited in this reclaimed land successfully.
! The company claim larger yield of rice
| than the South Carolina lands give under
the most favorable circumstances. Jute
grew six feet in five weeks on this new
land In St Mary the company has also
/ operated with much success, and land is
/ reclaimed every year and put in cultiva
! ton No engineering difficulty is accom-
| plished and levees need be only two or
three feet high The greatest danger is
| from overflow from the Mississippi, it
! being very easy to protect the lands from
! tidal overflow. The new lands are too
rich in soda, potassa and ammonia to pro-
duces canes of high saccharine strength
| for several years, but are excellent for
corn crops, and in eight years under cul-
| tivation become good sugar lands. The
cost of reclamation is SIS per acre.
Operations on still larger scale are be-
! ing prosecuted in Calcaseu, Cameron, and
! Vermilion parishes, where's syndicate has
purchased /, O00, 900 acres of marsh lands
/ upon which it is now engaged The Pic
ayune says: "The-average cost of reclaim
! ing these lands is found to be Sc per
acre. the marsh when reclaimed being
much richer than the adjacent uplands,
with a rich, deep soil, well suited to rice
or for pasture or meadow land