The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-24

Washington, May 2S.-(Special. .)-With | King Cotton" soaring above 10 cents and
 touching only in the high places atten- | tion has been forcibly directed to the pos
 sbilities of extending the cultivation fv h,ch S1 | fully keeps pace with the increasing sup
 ply. It is not generally known that Mis-
 sissippi that great state whose prosper e, | has within it's borders nearly 100000 acres
 of virgin land which, 1t is scientifically
 predicted, equals, if 1t does not exceed in of the far famed delta lands of that State, The Bureau of Soils, of the De- partment of Agriculture, has taken up | this subject in earnest, and MT. Milton Whitney, the Chief of the Bureau. hopes that some day this area, now waste land' | will be redeemed and hundreds or thot ts- fertile acres yearly. The land lies in the delta" referred to which, is in re-
 ailty, m area lying betwssn the Missis- | Memphis on the north to Vicksburg at
 the South, and forming about half of the "Yazoo area. .,- | refer with pardonable prlde-as Jonn
 Sharpe Williams on the floor of the
 House of Representatives did recently,
 to the fact that the Yazoo delta lands
 produce two bales of cotton to the acre. l But they fail to mention the corralary
 that the land which produces two bales
 
 cent. of the delta area and that from one and a third to one and two-thirds bales | Is considered an excellent yield except where improved methods of cultivation are employed. IL is hero in the heart of the "delta' that there are ls4,3S0 acres of
 lanc which the blow has never touched.
 form Into what MT. Whitney believes will equal the finest cotton land in the world.
 In treating of this subject yesterday Mir. Whitney said that the investigations con W Bureau
 the belief that in many instances the in- habitants of the delta" region were not
 which they should, and that if sufficient
 capital could be enlisted to drain the
 swamp region Tn the delta" the enter
 prize would 9s highly prohtsSle; naH Mhas
 he said covers about 68 per cent. of the
 delta or 4 per cent. of the Yazoo area.
 nual overflow and the soil is formed from
 the richest sediments deposited by the
 waters Unfortunately. the floods do not subside until about the first of June,
 and the land is practically abandoned to vigorous growth of hard wood timber. The question of surplus precipitation may be solved, as in the Louis Ana cane fields, the excavation of deep. broad ditches with smaller, more frequent laterals which would facilitate the natural drainage. valuable crops like cotton, cane or rice could be further guarded against by a pumping systems such as are employed in Holland. General inundation can only of levees, developed along the minor streams in the :nanner of those which shut out the main flood waters of the Mississippi River or the tidewaters along the meadows of the New Jersey coast Either State or National aid. or at least sary to secure such dike system. The Sharkey clay district which may be thus redeemed, is four times the extent of the YaEoo clay region. where the two bales to the acre is produced" Whitney, and I say my conclusions are based on the careful analysis of the slt- l uatIon made by a party from our Bureau, l there is too much attention paid to the | cultivation of cotton In the Yasoo area, | colored, and the pc Iple live primer ,'ally' on bacon and corn bread, is what We be- lieve to be one of the most fertile re- giOns in the county for trucK gardening What is known as the Yazoo sandy loam covering 26,670 acres or about per cont fitted by Its physical properties and it's admirable drainage for the production of truck for Northern and Eastern markets At present vhis land produces only from one half to three-fourtns of bale of cot ton per acre and parts of 1t have been continuously devoted to cotton raising for fifty years. But early Irish potatoes can and the yield of small patches would in- dicate that profit of $200 an acre can be had. If placed under intensive cultiva- ton with well-chosen and adequate fer
 tilization, much larger profits could be
 derived from early strawberries, peas,
 melons. sweet potatoes, and tomatoes
 Crops sensitive to frost could be protected