The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1905-02-11
PLAQUEMINE LOCKS
AND THE
ATCHAFALAYA RIVERS.

Importance of the early com
pletion of the Locks at Plaque
mine and the Improvement OF
Navigation so that steamboats,
drawing six feet of water will
have certain and reliable com
munication with the Mississippi
river and New Orleans at all sea
sons of the year; And the dlvor
cling of the Mississippi from the
Red and Atchafalaya Rivers.
Both of these measures are OF
vast Importance to the State OF
Louisiana and the city Of New
Orleans, and will do more to re
claim from overflow the vast body
of land lying on the west bank OF
the Mississippi from the Arkansas
line to the Gulf of Mexico
amounting to 1910, 900 acres. &C
cordlng to the report of the Miss
lssippi River Commission. OF
this vast body of land there has
been reclaimed, improved and put
in cultivation only l,6O6, $50 acres
principally by levees, assessed val
ue SS5,4j7, $40, leaving 1853, 517
acres of heavily timbered, over.
flowed and swamp land not i'm
proved nor in cultivation.
The value of the crops, not used
on the farms and plantations, &C.
cOrding to the U. S. Census Re
ports for 1901:
For cotton and cotton
seed, 375, 800 bales,
at s35 per BALE. s13,O53,OCC
Cotton seed, 2,OO6,G 600
tons at sl5 per ton, 3, 1OO,35C
Rice, (estimatedD 1, O5O, OO(
Sugar. molasses and
syrup. crop Of 1898,
an average crop year, "a, 291 ,54t
Making the value of
the total crop 1914, 291, 54f
Taking the cotton and seed cror
of 1908 it would be 500, O23, 65S,
or more than IS per ct. of the CAPT
tai invested.
Now take the 1l.SG3,517 acres
OF swamp and overflow ed lands
not in cultivation and let us say
that 5,OOO,U0O acres could be pro
tected, and eventually improved
and cultivated how much would il
add to the wealth and resources OF
the State9 If 1,Go6, 4SO acres pro
)duce crops to the value of $50
O23,G5S, then 5, OOO,O acres more
would produce $174,557,SO2 year.
ly crop value, with a capital in
vestment Of $266,GO4,657. In ad
dition to this, there is world of
wealth in the timber on these
lands, for they are generally very
heavily timbered, the most of
which is suitable for manufacture
ing purposes.
| have gathered these statistics
and made the calculations to prove
the immense resources and wealth
we have when once developed.
The question at once suggests it.
self. The quickest, most expe-
ditious and cheapest method of re-
claiming these lands from the
floods of the Mississippi river. 1t
has been demonstrated that the
river can be controlled by levees.
We have an unbroken line of le-
wees from Arkansas to the Gulf of
Mexico on its west bank with the
exception of twenty-six miles
above the mouth of the Red. Why
this gap has been left open, l cali
see no reason except to throw the
flood waters of the Mississippi in
to ue Atchafalaya, and make the
latter river an immense outlet to
the former. The necessary result
OF this is to back up the waters of
the Red and the numerous bays
and streams that drain that ex-
tensive section up to the Arkan
sas line, interfering with the
drainage of the lands already in
cultivation, and flooding the re
at the same time gorgins
the Atchafalaya and causing it's
outlets, in Its basin to
food that, also. Without al
brake IN the levees the floods from