The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-26

guard successfully against storms and
the damage they wreak upon rice
lands, he would be comfortably off in
this worlds goods.
Physical benefits accruing to plant
ers from a combination of their inter-
ests, Mr.. Carmichael said, would be
many. Along the north shore of the
Savannah river, not far from Savan-
nah, lie thousands of acres of valuable
rice lands, that could be dyked through
combination and rendered absolute
ly secure against perils of storms and
floods. Absolute certainty, of profit
able results, he said, would follow the
planting and there would no longer be
the haunting fear that the work of
months and the investment of thou
sands of dollars might be destroyed in
single day. srr
1T seems to me-" said Mr.. Car
michael, .'that it is impracticable for
any planter, acting for himself alone
to win absolute safety against storms
tides and freshets. Holland has re-
claimed the most productive and,
therefore, the most valuable, lands by
a system of banks, canals and pumps.
Pumping for the rice lands would be
but minor consideration. In Holland
they have farms" dwellings and vii
lagos as much asoseventeen feet below
the level of the sea. while in this case
we drain naturally from four to FIVE
feet below the level of the land we de-
sire to cultivate. Pumping, therefore,
would be necessary only in case of
continual high water caused by fresh
cts, high easterly winds or rains.
The mean rise and fall of tide in the
North Sea is five and a half feet, and
yet banks fourteen feet high render
the country safe. If fourteen-foot
banks are safe there, should think a
sixteen-foot bank would hold in the
most exposed places along the Savan-
nah river. AS the stream is assembled,
the necessity for high banks decreases.
and 1t should be possible to make a
fourteen-foot bank answer. Along the
rice lands on the north shore of the
Savannah river there are already many
well-settled banks that are about nine
feet above low water mark
"A bank built on these banks, eight
feet wide on top and twenty-six feet
at. the base would require 144 cubic
feet per foot more earth. A space of
nine miles long by IL miles wide is a
little more than 10000 acres, and this
will make 21h miles of bank, equal
to 113,250 liniel feet and require 6O5,-
437 cubic yards OF earth, which, at soc
per cubic yard, would cost $90.s16, or
$9.0S per acre.
81 would do away with all flood
gates, depending on trunks to flow the
fields. A narrow-guage railway should
extend the full length of the system,
leading to the threshing mills and
pounding mill. This latter should be
about midway of the system. having
suitable wharf facilities. With these
arrangements for loading the rough
rice into vessels. the freight and insur-
ance no inconsiderab1e item, would be
saved. OF course, there would be
freight and insurance on the pounded
rice, !. e., the rice ready for the con-
sumer but that would be a small item
in proportion"
capital of 100000 would be required
to carry out the plans in a perfect way,
Mr.. Carmichael holds, but that would
mean immunity from dangers that
now make rice crops so uncertain. The
capital would include the value of the
lands, cost of constructing new banks.
pounding mill, with a capacity of
100000 bushels, the old threshing mill
to be used. twelve miles of narrow
guage railway, new trunks where
needed, wharf facilities, implements
and pumping arrangements.
Mr.. Carmichael advocates a meeting
of rice planters interested in lands on
the north bank of the river for a con-
ference over his proposition. There are
many questions of detail that might be
considered. He says he has no "ax TO
grind" but simply offers a suggestion
that he believes would be valuable, IL
adopted