The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-06-23
The Cause of Floods.

lG0 OdUS0 Oh flOOQS.
From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
| The fact that they are suffering from
the freshets themselves this year has
caused the people of the West and North
west to study more thoroughly the cause
of the late excessive rainfall and the
| high water in the rivers, and they have
come to some very sensible conclusions
on this subject The total loss from the
high water in the Mississippi Valley this
year will be unprecedented. st. Louis
alone puts in bill for damages of $11,-
00O,OO as follows: St. Louis county,
So 900, 900; st. Louis City, $1,000,000; st.
Charles county, $2,000,000; the American
| bottoms, from Alton, ILL.,, to Cairo, ST.
900, 600, this including East st. Louis and
vicinity.
These are conservative estimates, and
include only the direct damage, not con-
templative damage or possible loss nor
does it take into consideration the suf-
fering of the 5000 people driven from
| their homes by the water or the Is, 900
temporarily thrown out of work in st.
compelled to close on account of high
| water. And even when the flood goes
down it will be too late for the farmers
to plant this year, and there will be no
crops raised in the overlooked section.
| And this is the return from but one of
score of river districts similarly situat-
ed, for the single town of Souix City es-
| Inmates its losses at $4,000 900. The
neighborhood of st. Louis suffered from
high water, but so did Kansas City, so
did the country of the Illinois, the Red,
the Arkansas, the White, the Missouri,
and a host of other streams. When the
total damages are added they will mount
high up in the millions, and will teach
the people of the Mississippi Valley that
there is no greater danger or more de>
vastating power than that of water.
There is no better time, therefore, to
agitate those questions which affect the
people living in the alluvial districts of
the mississippi and it's tributaries and
to consider the causes of these freshets
and overfiows; and the most careful con-
sideration of the matter has shown that
the increase in volume of water which
now pours down these. rivers is due to
the settlement and deforestation of the
country above, and that the only pros
lection found as yet for overflow, for the
lower country at least, it is the leyee
system.
The old theory that floods are ''dispen-
Stations of Providence" no longer holds,
the French being the first to so declare
and prove the truth of their statement
that these disasters are due TO mans
carelessness and wrecklessness.
France has passed through the same
experience that we have. The great
floods which occurred In Southern
France in 1856, due to the deforestation
of the French Alps, created a loss OF $780,
600, 900 and stimulated popular agitation.
The result was the adoption of the vast
scheme of reforesting the Alps. Stable
land was planted with trees and sod,
and unstable land was supported with
corrective works. The young forests
and vegetation held the SHOWS and spring
rains in check, and there was soon no
sudden surface wash to feed the creeks,
no swollen creeks to feed the larger tribu-
tares, and no mad tributaries to feed
the great torrents.
The results have been almost marvel
lous. The notorious torrent of BOurget,
which commenced at an altitude OF 5000
feet, had for nearly one half it's length
an extreme pitch of 81 to 100, and Great
ed land slides innumerable, has now
been subjugated for ten years by a
young forest of 9SS acres, planted in 1872.
J The torrent of Riou Bourdoux, starting
from the mountain at an altitude OF g.
500 feet, defending at a pitch of 30 to 100,
!. cutting channel with perpendicular
} depth OF from 300 to 400, and creating at
it's mouth cone Of debris covering 600
, acres, has also been tanned and the ter
ritory which it wasted has been made a
garden again. The Grallaz, which des-
troyed highways and railways and filled
valleys with mud and boulders, is now
, irrigating with summer spring water the
very farms from which it formerly had
priven the owners. The whole country
has been changed, and the population
which was formerly driven out of these
valleys by the frequent freshets there is
now returning and restoring them to
cultivation.
> We are passing through the same ex
] perience as France in this mater. The
destruction of forests in the North and
: ! ~ sIA.@- a..