The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-15

! engineers have showed how a vast area
may he reclaimed by drainage at a
cost Of S3;25 an acre. lf the legislation
proposed by the drainage advocates
should lie enacted, these public lands
would be sold to homesieadcrs at the
regular pre- -emption price of Sl25 an
acre, plus the cost Of drainage. or a
total Of $3.50 an acre. payable IN ten
annual installments. In this way tho
government would be reimbursed foi
the money spent in draining the wet
/ lands, and the community would have
! the benefit. The Federal drainage
scheme proposes the reimbursement TO
! The government of the money expended
/ in the initial work
| AT Memphis today convention
! composed Of delegates from the four
| States Of Tennessee, Arkansas, Missis-
: sippi and Louisiana will meet TO
further the cause of drainage, The
| Congressional delegations from the
| four States named will be present, and
many visitors from other States inter
cstcd in the project are expected, This
! convention will work mp interest in
! the question in the southern Missls.
! sippi valley. The National Drainage
association, organized at Oklahoma last
I fall. will hold its second annual
meeting IN ST. Paul III October. The
National Waterways commission, ap-
pointed bv Congress to report on the
needs OF the inland waterways of the
country, will be In session all this
summer, and Ii will devote much tlme
10 the study of the effect OF drainage
on the rivers. 1t is the testimony of
The engineers that the drainage of the
wet lands by bitches, which are con-
stantly free and open, will prevent the
great annual foods which prove 40
disastrous TO the people Of the Missis
sippi and its afhuents.
With these forces at work, and IN
cooperation with the men who are
CARRYING on the private drainage which
has already reclaimed vast tracts Of
land. the next Congress will undoubted-
ly carefully investigate the whole
subject. II is the opinion Of the
drainage advocates that their cause is
as good as that OF irrigation, and that
they surely will be given the same aid
If the lands that would be drained
under the operation Of such a law as
is being advocated, by no means in
cluding all of the swamp lands of the
country, were divided into small farms
of forty acres each they would sup"
port over two million families. or about
ono eighth of the present population
Of continental United States And at
that. each family would have many
times as much land for it's support as
may be claimed by the thrifty peasants
of the Netherlands. whose fore
fathers thousand years ago. and
more, reclaimed the rich Hollow Lands
from the tidowater by a system of
drainage which is still the wonder Of
the world
In many OF the Eastern States the
State governments and private lndI
viduals have drained wet lands. which
have been for years the most pro-
ductive of farms. New York, New
Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania
have been draining lands since before
the Revolution. Virginia and the Caro-
kind. and have made thousands Of
acres Of productive farming land out
of what was before dreary waste Of
water and weeds. In Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota much
drainage work has been done by pri
vate means. and still is being car
ried on. The task of draining great
areas of swamp land is too stnpendous
for private means to undertake, how
ever. involved as the land is in the
complications of divided ownership. If
it has paid to drain the small tracts,
it will pay to drain the large ones, and
for this work the people interested are
appealing to the general Government.
The British government has excited
the wonder and admiration of the
world by its work in Egypt, where it
has spent $25,000,000 in extending the
area of the land enriched by the
waters Of the River Nile. Yet there
is in the United States, in the ST.
Francis basin, an immense tract OF
land containing 3,s00,000 acres, twice
as much as that redeemed by England
in Egypt, which may be drained and
taken OFF this tract will be found COW
cred with sixteen feet of alluvial
deposit, and will be as rich as any
agricultural land on the face of the
globe. The convention in Memphis to-
day will consider this as one Of its
great projects,
There is a greater amount of cotton
land now subject to overflow between
Cairo and the delta on the lower Mis-
sissippi, which could he drained, than
there is in all of reclaimed Egypt now
under cultivation. These statistics are
startling to those who have not made
study of the question, but they are
none INC iesS worthy OIL COnSlQeraClOn.
The Netherlands reclaimed every
| foot of land that could possibly be ta.
ken from the sea because the people
were forced to accommodate a popula.
tion which had outgrown the country.
Thus far the American people have had
plenty of land to till that did not re.
! quire either irrigation or drainage, and
it is only of late years that attention
has been directed to the matter. Now
there are over million foreigners com
ing to our shores each year, our native
population is increasing rapidly, the
markets are being broadened every day
and the time has come for Americans
to take care of what has been going
to waste.
Not only does the economic feature
Of the question invite attention, but
the sanitary benefits of more thorough
drainage would be inestimable, The
marshes aud swamps are breeding places
for the mosquitoes which carry the
germs of malaria and yellow fever, and
their vast stores of decaving organic
matter are sending diseasc-laden vapors
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