Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-26
MANY MILES OF D|KES
Preventing the Overflow of
the Mississippi.
AREASPRESERVED
IMMENSE COST OF THE GREAT
LEvEE SYSTEM.
Most Fertile Lands Of the United States
Protected From Devastation
Much Yet to Be Accomplished.
--t.. By WIN. E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
4. Record Herald


The delay in settlement of the Yazoo
valley was largely due to the annual over
flows OF the Mississippi river, to which the
land was constantly exposed until levees or
embankments were built to protect 1t. Now
there Is no trouble, except occasionally
when there is a break, and breaks are be-
coming more and more infrequent every
year. The lands on either side of the Mis-
sissippi below Cairo are divided
into levee districts. SO many coun-
ties to the district and each has
Its board of commissioners and corps
of engineers, who are building embank-
ments from ten to twenty feet high, usual
ly some distance back from the natural
banks of the river, while the federal gov
eminent keeps the navigable channel clear,
builds rebutments and assists In strength
ening the levees. There is a tremendous
constitutional question involved in all Of
this. Some statesmen who do not live In
the overflow district take the ground that
the general government may preserve the
channel Of the river for navigation pur-
poses. but cannot protect the property on
its banks.
Congressional Appropriations.
But the controversy is practically obso-
lete. The government is doing its share
and Congress is making very liberal appro-
priations, regardless of it's constitutional
rights. Before 1882 Congress did nothing to as
sist in building levees; but after the terrible
flood of that year the Mississippi river COM
mission made an allotment of 81 300, 600 for
the purpose, and since then appropriations
direct and indirect, have been made in
every appropriation bill, and the protection
of the plantations by levecs has become
the established policy of the national gov
eminent 1t has expended nearly twenty
millions of dollars for that purpose. while
the states and levee districts have spent
about forty millions, making the total cost
or the ieyeeS to date about sixty million
dollars.
This expenditure is represented by 1850
miles of embankment, averaging fifteen feet
high and containing 172, 207, 900 cubic yards
Of earth. According to the estimates of
the engineers SS9OS6,OOO cubic yards of
earthWork are still necessary, which leaves
the work of permanent protection about
68 per cent completed The levees are not
continuous. There are gaps of considerable
size at several points; at the mouth Of the
Red, the White, the YaZoo, the Arkansas
the st. Francis and other rivers and creeks,
thus allowing an area of about 5000 square
miles to be overfiowed by oack water every
year. An overflow at the right season of the
year Is good thing. for 1t enriches the
soil; but the spring floods cannot be regu-
lated Some time, when the pian of the ir-
rigatfon bureau of the government Is car
rled out, for the construction of a series
of reservoirs to detain the rainfall and
melting SHOWS of spring until the water IS
needed In the summer, it may be possible
to regulate the overfiows as the people
of Egypt do on the Nile. But now the food
brings destruction.
The amount of damage done annually
however, is growing less and less. In 1889
the entire valley of the Mississippi was
overlooked, but in 1903, with a flood wave
that broke all records, the overfowed ter
ritory was only about 1900 square miles, Or
10.7 per cent of the area of the valley, and
only half of that was due to breaks. The
rest was due to the back water at the
mouths of rivers, as described above.
There were only nine breaks in the $50
miles Of embankments, and only three miles
of embankment were carried away. In 1897,
with much less water than In 1903, the lev
ees broke In thirty-eight places and more
than a hundred miles of embankment were
carried away. The total area protected by
the levees now Is $4,000 square miles. and
less than 5000 square miles were covered
with water. This Is a cause of great re-
joicing to the people of this section, be-
cause it demonstrates the effectiveness of
the levee system. or the entire area less
than one-eighth is now exposed to floods.
The Best Entertainments.
After repeated experiments the engineers
have decided that the best entertainments
are those made of the local soil, without
extraneous matter-no timber, no stone or
brushwood, but simply banks of earth SHOW
eled up from the soil where they are made.
When the banks are finished they are
planted with Bermuda grass, which has
many roots, which, INTERVIEWING by
growth, form a mat or carpet, which Is al
most impervious to water. Bermuda turf
Is said to be the best protection that can
be obtained. In some places a cone or ridge
of clay has been raised inside of the en-
bankment to strengthen it. In former
times timber and brushwood We're used.
but that was found to be a mistake The
logs will rot the hruSb will
rats, crabs and other burrOwing things will
get into the woodwork and undermine If:
but If the embankment is of solid earth
it will repair itself and block its own holes
The valley of the Mississippi subject to
overflow extends from Cape Girardeau,
forty miles above Cairo, to the Gulf of
miles by air line and 1.115
miles by following the curves of the
river. It's area amounts to %. 700 square
miles, and it Is an made land. the sedt-
mont of centuries. brought down from
the mountains by the streams that drain
the basins tributary to the Mississippi
river. 1t Is claimed to be the richest and
most fertile soil in the world, except that
of the valley OF the Nile, and the people
down here do not except that. The soil
yields more In dollars and cents per acre
than any other land in the United States
and every year as the country becomes
more settled and opened, and therefore
better drained, Its productiveness in
creaSes.
Area Drained by the River.
The Mississippi river drains an area Of
I. 24o,050 square mtles-41 per cent of the |
territory OF the United States. 800 |
miles from north to south and 1900 miles |
from east to west, embracing ten entire |
states, portions of twenty-five other |
states and part of two provinces Of Can
ada More than 10000 miles of rivers and |
streams and $4,000 miles of navtgabIe |
rivers are tributary to the Mississippi. |
and between it's banks it Is estimated |
that 7S0.000.000.000 cubic feet of water |
are annually carried to the sea This. |
however, is only % per cent Of the rain |
fall: the remaining rs per cent being con- |
sumed or lost by evaporation or absorbed |
by the ground while en- route.
During the spring months, with the |
melting SHOWS Of the mountains added to |
the enormous rainfall. the river rises in |
a most extraordinary manner-53 feet |
at Cairo, AZ feets at Memphis, 90 feet at |
40 feet at Baton Rouge and |
20 feet at New Orleans-the variation at |
the different points being due to the DIFF
ference in the distances between its |
banks.
The levees are paid for by tax Of from
two and half to five cents on every |
acre OF land in the valley; the railroads |
pay tribute varying from 50 to 500 per
mile; every bale Of cotton must pay 81; |
every sack of sugar from % to 80 cents.