The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-15
SHALL DUR SWAMP LANDS BE DRAINED Millions of Acres Could Easily
 Be Reclaimed WORK DONE IN. EGYPT The Federal Government Has Spent About $s5,ooo,ooo In Irrigation,
 But Very Little to Save
 overflowed Lands.
WORK DONE IN. EGYPT
BY FREDERIC j. HAskIN.

of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois combined The swamp lands in continental United states east of the Rocky mountains susceptible to reclamation by draina1 1e have total area just about that of the three great middle states named. Arid lands are being reclaimed and opened up Tor settlement by irrigation, by sup plying water to nourish the living crops day after day. As yet the federal gov ernment has not undertaken to reclaim, the lands which suffer because of a su perabundance of water.
 According to government surveys and estimates there are at least fifty mill lion acres of land which can be drained and made fit for farming at a cost of about 50 an acre. This would increase the value of the drainage districts more than $5,o0O,o0O and would add to the crop Vaiues or this great nation many mill llohs annually. It Is impossible to treat or the subject of the drainage of the wet and overflowed lands of the United States except to discuss 1t in millions and billions of dollars
 Ihe federal government has spent about $So'OOOoOO In irrigation work and the peo- pie nave given unanimous approval to the project The argument is advanced that the federal government rnav well consider drainage as a coordinate branch or the redemption of lands now unfit for noines' The department of interior through the geological survey, has made typographical survey of the swamn lands in an Indian reservation in Min nesota. The engineers have showed bou vast area may be reclaimed bv drafnaga at cost of $3.25 an acre. If the lep- lslation proposed by the drainage advo- cates should be enacted, these public lands would be sold to homesteaders al the regular pre-emption price of s1 25 an acre, plus the cost of drainage or total or $h5O an acre, payable in ten annual mstailments. In this way the government would be reimbursed for the money spent in draining the wet lands ana the community would have the homo ht' The federal drainage scheme nro. poses the reimbursement to the eovern- ment of the money expnded in the initia, work. aH f
 At Memphis today convention cam- posed of delegates from the four states of tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Loulsiana will meet to further the cause oi uralnase. The congressional delega- tlons rom the four states named will be present, and many visitors from other states interested in the projects are ex- pected. This convention will work in interest In the question in the southern Mlssissippi valley The National Drain age association, organized at Oklahoma last fall, will hold Its second annual roeet. ing in St. Paul in October. The national waterways commission appointed by Con- Sress to report on the needs of the in- laho water ways of the country will be in session all this summer, and 1t will devote much time to the study of the eHect of drainage on the rivers. It Is the testimony of the engineers that inc drainage of the wet lands by ditches which are constantly free and open will prevent the great annual floods which prove so disastrous to the people of the Mississippi and it's afrluents.
 With these forces at work. and In co- operation with the men who are carrying on .ne private drainage which has al- ready reclaimed vast tracts of land inc next Congress will undoubtedly oaref,,llv ' investigate the whole subject. It ia tba opinion of the drainage advocates tha, their cause is as good as that of irriga- tion and that they surely will be given the same aid.
 1T the lands that would be drained un- der the operation of such a law as Is being 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 present population of continental United States. And at that, each family would have many times as much land Tor its support a may be claimed by the thrifty peasants of the Netherlands whose forefathers a thousand years ago and more reclaimed the rich Hollow lands from the tidewater by 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 Pennsylvania 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 land out of what was before dreary waste of water
 
 Missouri and Minnesota much drainage work has been done by private means and still Is being carried on. The task draining great areas of swamp land is too stupendous for private means to undertake, however, involved as the land is in the complications of divided own ership. If 1t has paid to drain the small tracts, 1t will pay to drain the large ones, and for this work the people in terested are appealing to the general government.
 The British government has excited the wonder and admiration of the world by It's work in Egypt where it has spent S25 000,0 GOO in extending the area of the land enriched by the water of the River Nile. Yet there is in the United States, in the St. Francis basin, an immense tract of land containing 3,SO0,oO0 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 cov- cred with sixteen feet of alluvial deposit and will be as rich as any agricultural land on the face of the globe. The con- vention In Memphis today will consider this as one of it's great projects.
 There is a greater amount of cotton land now subject to 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 to 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