The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-12-19
REELFooT TROUBLES.
lMaj. Harris Proposes Few More
Observations.

tonville, Tenn, the pioneer and
rich planter of Lake county, is in
the city. He has by no means
given up his hopes of draining
Reelfoot lake so as to cultivate
thousands Of acres of land now I'M
der water and still leave several
thousand acres for q fish pond, but
he is also preparing to urge upon
the next General Assembly a bill
which, if it should become an act,
would result in opening to cult
walton thousands Of acres of land
now hardly worth its taxes.
s'There are 100000 acres of land
in Tennessee" he said to reporter
for the News, sitting in the lobby
Of the Peabody Hotel, mot worth
one cent per acre more than they
were 100 years ago. If my plan
is put into effect this land will be-
come the most productive farm
land in the state and the increase
in taxes from it will pay the state
debt. All we want is some aid
from the state and that aid will
not cost the state one cent.
Il know Of fully 100000 acres
Of land covered by small lakes in
the river tier of, counties, such as
Sunk Lake, and subject to over
flow from the crooked creeks,
which are now Of no value. Of
course the land under water cannot
be cultivated and in addition to this
there are the great tracts around
the lakes and in the bends of the
streams which are too DOGGY for
crops.
1.-The trouble with all present
plans for drainage is that where
this land is owned by, say a dozen
men, ten may be willing and anx-
ions to subscribe to a fund which
would dig ditch to a river and
open the land, while the other two
would not consent to put up cent.
The ten naturally do not want to
spend all the money and let the
other two get an equal amount of
benefit.
The plan which | am going to
try to get the General Assembly
to carry Quits to have state law
requiring the county court, upon
the petition Of the majority owners
of any tract OF swamp land, to
create commission which shall
ascertain the cost of draining the
water off and then assess the cost
against all Of the property which
will be benefited by the removal
Of the water. In the case of lakes
and plain swamps, the work would
be simple ditch, and in the case
Of creeks it would consist of
Strengthening out the bends SO that
the excessive rainfall would pass
off quickly instead of spreading
over the whole face of the country.
"This plan would open up to
cultivation no less than 100000
acres of as fine land as could be
found anywhere and do it at a
small cost to the owners and none
to the state.
81 have had my attorneys look
into the question and they assure
me that such law would be consti-
tutional and couldleasily be drawn
to escape the rock upon which our
old Reelfoot levee'district split.
missouri has such law and it
works we'll. In both that state
and Indiana, / have seen as fine
land as you can find anywhere
which was under water for 100
years, and which now produce 80
bushels Of corn to the acre.
Speaking of the Reelfoot Lake
case, Maj. Harris said that he still
had hopes of draining six feet Of
water out of the lake, and thus un
to cultivation some %, 900
acres Of land now in the shoal wa
ters of the lake and ''the scatters''
at the south end of it.
"This,'' he said, ''would leave
5000 to 5000 acres in the lake
proper. / am confident that the
courts will yet give me possession
~ fhiu In fact whan the case