The Washington herald., 1907-05-15

With these forces at work. and in CO.
operation with the men who are carrying
on the private drainage which has al
ready reclaimed vast tracts Of land. the
next Congress will undoubtedly investi-
gate the whole subject carefully. 1t is
the opinion Of the drainage advocates that
their cause is as good as that of irrlga-
ton, and that they surely will be given
the same aid.
If the lands that would be drained un-
der the operation Of such a law as is be-
ing advocated, by no means including all
Of the swamp lands Of the country. were
divided into small farms OF forty acres
each, they would support over two million
families. or about one-eighth Of the pres
ent population Of continental United
States. And at that. each family would
have many times as much land for its
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
tidewater by q system OF drainage which
IS still the wonder Of the world
In many Of the Eastern States the State
governments and private individuals have
drained wet lands which have been for
years the most productive Of farms. New
York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Penn
sylYauia have been draining lands since
before the Revolution Virginia and the
Carolinas have done much work Of this
kind and have made thousands Of acres
OF productive farming lands out Of what
was before q dreary waste Of water and
weeds. Ia Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mis-
souri,, and Minnesota much drainage
work has been done by private means.
and still IS being carried on. The task
Of draining great areas of swamp land IS
too stupendous for private means to IN
dert9ke however, involved as the land Is
in the complications Of divided ownership.
II it has paid to drain the small tracts, it
will pay to drain the large ones. and for
this work the people interested are Gp-
pealing 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
S2j.O00.0oo 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,O00 acres
twice as much as that redeemed by Eng
land in Egypt. which may be drained and
turned into farms. When the water is
taken Off this tract will be found covered
with sixteen feet Of alluvial deposit. and
viii be as rich as any agricultural land
on the face OF the globe. The convention
in Memphis to-day will consider this one
Of its great projects.
There Is a greater amount Of cotton
land now subject 10 overflow between
Cairo and the delta on the lower Missis-
sippi, which could be drained. than there
is in all Of reclaimed Egypt now under
cultivation. These statistics are start
ling 20 those who have not made a study
of the question, but they are none the less
worthy Of consideration.
The Netherlands reclaimed every foot
Of land that could possibly be taken from
the sea, because the people were forced
to accommodate a population which had
outgTown the country. Thus far the
American people have had plenty OF
land to till that did not require either ir-
TigatiOn or drainage, and it is only of
late years that attention has been di-
rected 20 the matter. Now there are over
a million foreigners coming to our shores
each year, our native population is in
creasing rapidly. the markets are being
broadened every day. and the time has
come for Americans TO take care Of what
has been going 10 waste.
Not only does the economic feature Of
the question invite attention. but the
sanitary benefits Of more thorough drain