Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1908-04-11
I 5 +
OUR WASTED SWArlP LANDS


new issue has arisen before Congress-
the extending of federal aid for the redemption
of the nations swamp-ands and their winning
to agricu culture. AS a Congressional problem
this is new as matter before the country, ,
swamp drainage and the Investigation and sur
veying of our great wetland areas are an old
story. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that
considerably more is to be learned than is now
known regarding American swamps and over
flowed lands; even their aggregate area is
scarcely more than matter of guesswork. It
is varously estimated that American swamps
include 100000 to 100000 and as high as 49,
100000 acres; but these lands widely
scattered and comprise many small bodies
that recent government Investigations indicate
a very much larger acreage, probably well up
ward of 100, 100000 acres.
The first American of note to plan drainage
and call attention to the fertility and value of
swamp-lands was George Washington, who, in
speaking of the famous Dismal Swamp of Vir-
ginia predicted that it would one day be fully
reclaimed to agriculture and furnish great
wealth to it's cultivators. In this statement,
notwithstanding his wide knowledge Of the
country, Washington doubtless believed that
he was speaking of the largest and most i'm
portant swamp area of the continent, never
dreaming that within century his country
would include other swamps treble the size of
the Dismal Swamp and an aggregate swamp
area several times greater than the original
State of Virginia, considerably greater than the
British Isles, or greater than all of New Eng
land, New York, and Pennsylvania combined u
an area capable of supporting in comfort "a
population great as that of the entire United
States to-day, and worth, when reclaimed to
agriculture, at a conservative estimate, $4,000
OOO
OF the two classes of internal improvement
drainage is likely to prove even more popular,
as public issue, than irrigation, and for a
number of reasons. In the first place, the
swamp scattered principally through
out the already well-settled portions of the
country where population is comparatively
dense and transportation facilities already we'll
developed. In the second place, the engineer
ing problems involved, while of great magni- |
tude, are, in many of the projects, comparative
ly simple, aud the cost of drainage much less
than that of irrigation reclamation. It is US |
ua1ly an easier and cheaper undertaking to getI
water off of land than it is to get water on land
and system once established, the cost of drain
age maintenance is much lower. Where the
cost of government irrigation reclamation ranges
from $22 to per acre in the projects thus far
announced by the Interior Department, and
with probable average of $50 per acre for all
the government work, the estimated cost of
drainage, for most of the projects, is less than
onethird this amount, and is as low in some in
stances as So or So per acre. Reclaimed, this
land will vie in productivity with the most fer
tile farm-lands of the weathiest of our agri-
cultural sections, and Immediately become
worth $50 500, 5000, and even $500 per acre
The decayed vegetation and humus of centuries
and ages lie stored i'll the swamps, and when
drained they form richer soil than any other
class of land and are of far more persistent
fertility-From ITO Farm Americas Swamps,"
by Guy Elliott Mitchell in the American Re
view of Reviews for April.