The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-31
A NET WORK OF CANALS.
The COunty'S Drainage and the Pro-
cess Of its Construction.

The New Casey Canal-How It is Be-
ing Built-Seven Miles Long and
Part of it Cut Through a Cypress
Forest-Stumps and Trees Blown up
by Dynamite-The County Farm and
the Commissioners Watermelon
Patoh-A Well Constructed Road
Chatham county is being intersected
! with a perfect network of bitches
drains and canals, and thousands Of
! acres of what was once, and some of
/ which is now, salt marsh lands, are be-
! ing reclaimed from the tides which flow
over them twice a day, and are being
made susceptible of cultivation.
Being in close proximity to the sea,
| Chatham county is covered largely with
/ swamp lands, drained only by few small
| rivers. This drainage is almost valaeless,
as the tides rise in these rivers, and over
| flow upon the marshes, which are
| for that reason valueless so
far as their producing power
| is concerned. As fast as these lands are
! drained they become cultivable and val
ue at once attaches to them.
Then too, the swamp lands are unin-
! habitable until they are thoroughly
drained Malaria generates in these low
grounds and they are unsafe for the pub
lie health until they have been cleaned
out and put in a condition where they can
be kept clean.
For these reasons Chatham county is
spending thousands of dollars annually in
| draining and cleaning out the county's
| low lands. This is the most important
work, the county commissioners have be-
fore Thorn nd &c laf b,,
| placed the superintendence and manage
ment of it in the hands of so able and
practicaAan engineer as Maj. II. A Bland
ford
The county drainage is Commissioner
Carson's hobby, and in his work as chair
man of the drainage committee he is ably
seconded by DR.. T. J. Charlton, who is a
member of the committee.
A TREMENDOUS WORK.
The new Casey canal, the head Of
which lies in ditch above the Catholic
cemetery and which runs over seven
miles through iCuyler swamp to the
mouth of the Vernon river, its outlet in
the southeastern part of the county is in
magnitude and Importance, the pricipal
work to be completed by the present
board
The old Casey canal, which was con-
structed for the purpose of draining the
same swamp, was such poor piece Of
engineering that the construction of the
new one was made neces-
sary. 1t is about seven miles
in length and its construction was begun
in 1878. It required about seven years to
build it and it cost the county over S23-
600 for labor outside of the enormous work
done by the convicts, whose support and
guarding also came out of the countys
eXchequer. 1t was built without grada-
ton, through irregular slopes, hammocks
and hills, and at every8rain, instead of
draining the lowlands it overfowed its
banks and flooded the swamps.
In the construction of the new canal
all these difficulties have been obviated.
The canal has been placed in the very
lowest portion of the swamp, and its
lateralS are so constructed with trunks
that all the surface water is
carried off, but when the water
rises in the canal the pressure closes the
trunk gates and there is no overflow what
ever.
About mile of the new Casey canal
has been completed, that is from the
Meridian road around to the canals out
let at the head of the Vernon river right
at the Montgomery cross road. There is
a trunk bridge over the canal at this
point, the large trunk preventing the
water from rising in the canal when the
tides back the water up to the head of
the Vernon river.
RECLAIMED FROM THE SEA
The new Casey canal, as far as it has
been completed, is a model of construc-
ton. 1t is banked and graded
almost perfectly, and although the
fall in the swamp is
but little more than 10 inches in 1000
feet, the engineering has been so thor
ough that this fall has been utilized at
every point.
Along the side of the canal run side
bitches or drains and into these the sur
face waters run. At frequent intervals
there are trunks leading into the canal
and through these the water flows, but it
| cannot flow backward from the canal, no
matter how high the water rises. ThOus-
ands of tons of dirt have been removed
from the bed of the canal all by convict
labor, and from this the most regular and
solid entertainments have been construct
cd.
The result has heen so far that hun
dreds of acres of marsh land have been re-
claimed from the tides and upon a rOr-
ton OF 1t there is most beautiful and
luxuriant crop of corn growing eight to
sixteen feet in height.
There are about one hundred convicts at
work on the new Casey canal and while
only little over mile of it has been en-
| tirely completed, "a mile and half more has
| been eXcaVated by the steam dred0e and
partially completed. Without Interrupt
tiOns, Maj. Blandford says the entire work
| of constructing the seven miles of the
canal could easily be completed by next
May or June. When it is completed. and
| all the surrounding territory in the vast
Cuyler swamp thoroughly drained, over
thirteen square miles of territory will
have been reclaimed from the salt sea
| tides, and made not only susceptible of
cultivation, but also inhabitable.
THE WORK OF THE DREDGE.
The steam dredge purchased by the old
| board of commissioners, plays most i'm
portant part in the construction
of the new canal. 1t is well
worth the sum that was
paid for it, and if any one could see it
eating its way through the clay, stumps.
stones and stubble of Cuyler swamp, he
would marvel that such things could be.
In ten or dozen of its gigantic swoops
down into the hollow of what is to be the
canal, it removes ton or more of earth
and stubble, and piles it up in an en-
! bankment on the side of the canal Upon
| this embankment a sixteen-foot road is to
/ be constructed almost the entire length of
/ the canal.
/ The dredge is now working in an i'm
! mense cypress forest in the center of the
swamp. A regular Jungle so