The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-13
THE FLOOD on IT'S WAY.
PLANTERS MAKING EVERY Eff
FORT TO SAVE THEIR CROPS.

FORT TO SAVE THEIR CROPS.
Labor Scarce on the Plantations-The
Freshet Expected to Reach Savan-
nah Saturday-The Ogeechee Rising
Rapidly and Plantations on That
River and on the Satilla and Alta
naha in Danger-What the River
Steam ers Report.
The great trouble with the rice planters
yesterday, as it has been for the past three
savs, is that not enough labor could bs Sc
cured. If ample labor had been available
great deal Of rice would have been cut
yesterday and on Monday and Tuesday.
As it is, every energy has been bent TO get
ling out the rice already down. A few
planters, who were wellup with their work
are cutting and hauling out. Others are
lhreshing in the field
The balconies Of the business houses on
she Bay front yesterday commanded very
pretty view of some of the rice fields, and
with glass the threshers could be seen at
work on the Screven place. On the planta-
lions owe the rice is being hauled to sand
knobs or elevations and put up in ricks 50
to % feet long and proporuonately arranged
the ricks will be out Of water, but it is
hoped and expected that they will get wet
only short distance from the base. These
knobs vary in hight from TO 25 feet above
the level OF the fields.
RICE PLANTERS AT THE oGLETHoRPE.
Quite q number of the rice planters, after
hard days work, met last night at the
Oglethorpe club room to compare notes.
They were not inclined to think that
they can operate in the fields later
than Saturday night, but will util-
re every hour until the flood is upon
them. They have about abandoned all hope
Of saving any of the young rice They we're
examining with a great deal of interest a
double diagram of the food of 1887 and 1888,
by MIR. Fred A. Habershan, rice broker, and
81 eculating on tine coincidence of the triple
rise each year. The diagrams show the rel
btive hignt, IN feet, of tue Savannah river
ct Augusta, in August 1897, and September
1888. On the diagram the danger line is
shown at % feet, and the following is the
record;
THE FREsHET OF 1887.
Aug. l, 1887, the river rose to 81 feet and
began to fail, on Aug. 3, having reached %
feet; it went up to 80 feet on Aug. 4, where
it remained until the next day and again
began to recede, going down to 10 feet on
Aug. z, when it began its third rise, going
to "a feet on Aug. 8, and after being on a
stand until Aug 8, it again rose to 81 feet
on Aug. 10, and on Aug. IL it reached 80
feet and then fell steadily, being only Is
feet Aug. 13.
The September rise this year began Sept.
l, going from IA feet to II feet on Sept 2,
and to 81 feet by Sept 4; it then fell TO 10
feet on Sept 5, and on Sept began to rise,
being rs feet, the danger line, on Sept. 8:
1t then fell TO % feet by Sept. 9, went up to
"a feet by Sept. ~ the highest point reached
by the 1887 freshet), and to IS feet on Sept.
II, dropping to "a feet by the morning Of
Sept l2
The planters say they had the water on
their plantations last year for fourteen
days, but less than half that length of time
Will rot the stalk of the young rice and de-
stroy it, as it wild then fall on the ground
and be a total loss.
THE oGEECHEE RISING.
Mr. A. Z. Moynelo, an Ogeechee planter.
returned to the city last night and
in an interview with a MoRNING
NEWS reporter said that a heavy
rain of two hours duration fell in
the neighborhood Of his plantation yester-
day afternoon, and the river is rising an
inch every hour at Ogeechee, with the rail-
road only IL inches above the water. The
rain seriously retarded the work of harvest
ing ONEI lucIt FcobSiudf. MI. 1OTnplD
also reports a barometric fall of 02 of an
inch, which be thinks means more unsettled
weather. ThsYe is local freshet in tho
Ogeechee and he anticipates a repetition of
the food of 1887 across country. In
that year the Savannah freshet crossed the
swamps, ami in the neighborhood of Eden
poured a portion of the food i'll the Ogee-
chez. As the freshet in the Savannah is
four feet higher than last year. he does not
,E,aIl Sk.as
lot follow. He thinks he can keep the
water of OF his place
The MORNING NEWS advices from Mid
Vile this morning say that the Ogeechee
river is full and rising.
MIR. Moynelo saws the rise in the Altamaha
will do great damage, as the rains have
been heavy III its feeders above. Lines are
down at the telegraph stations on the Alta
maha, and no reports could be received
from there last night.
THE FLOOD ONLY THREE DAYS OFF,
The rise of Sept 4, when the river
reached 81 feet at Augusta, is beginning to
show here. Yesterday the tide did not run
out as far as on the day previous. 1t has
rot yet affected the low lands on the other
side Of the freshet dam at the head of
Argyle island. 1t is believed that the 2S
feet rise will begin TO be felt there Saturday
night, ard by Tuesday night the water will
have covered all the rice plantations of the
Savannah river. Until its subsistence all is
conjecture. High tides and east or north
east winds may add TO the damage, and
even the rice stacked on the knobs may, to
a greater or less extent, be damaged, and
possibly in some instances be totally de-
stroyed. A renewal of the rains would
also add to the danger
The steamer Ethel, Capt. Carroll, ar
rived last night from Cohen's Bluff. Capt.
Carroll said that so far as he went very lit
tie damage has been done. but on his last
trip he said that he only struck the 2S-foot
rise, and that at some points the water has
overfiown the banks, but to no great extent
Capt. Carroll reports that the planters
along the river are making very good
progress in removing the rice already in
the fields TO places of safety. Some are
building scaffoldiDg for the purpose of
hosting the rice out of the foods way, but
II IS thought that the rice on the stubble
viii be entirely destroyed
The steamer Progress is due here at 8
O'Clock this afternoon, but it is believed
that she did not leave Augusta Yesterday
on account of the hight of the river, which
would not permit her to pass underline Au-
QuSta bridge without risk of conSidarahIo