The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1910-05-06
As TO FLOOD Prospects.

! A1y dfy IN the
lower Mississippi valley, and the dry
weather seems 70 be tapping over into
| May. Upon the eommo. o4.s,r th.4 En-.
rsirfaA ever any great region is abeu4
the same year by year esA in view Of
the fact thai Ia this section there has
| been 40 great amount Of rainfall from
| the first day of the present wear to the
/ end Of April, period of four months.
or ene-third OF the year. the question
may wen be asked: tsDoes this past
deficit Of rainfall portsn1 an unusual
wet, and, by consequence. foea season
To foIIewF''
| 1t might be worth while TO INQUIRE
Of the United States weather bureau
what esa be learned from its record DIS
on the subject. On May l, tAe various
great tributaries of the Mississippi riy-
er gave no indications.
The Mississippi river from Cairo
down, is at half fleoi stage, while
above Cairo IT is at one-third flood
| stage
The Missouri at Kansas CITY is at
half flood, but it has received none
of the Rocky mountain torrents, caus-
ed sy the melting of the SHOWS, their
waters reaching st. Louis, as a rule.
early in June. The Arkansas and Red
rivers are both low.
The significance of this general SIT
uation is that the flood in the Ohio
valley is much behind time, suggesting
that it may be delayed until it can com
bine with the great outflow of the Mis-
soaH river and it's tributaries from the
mountains. With our levees in fair
condition we should be able to cope
with the waters out of the Ohio, bat
should the Ohio and the Missouri poslr
their floods upon us at the same tinse
we viii have what only occurs oecas-
ionaliy, a tremendous conjunction of
flood waters, to be increased by the out
flow Of the Arkansas and Red rivers.
Such conjunction is only possible
when the two great tributaries, the
Ohio from the east DELAYS its foods
until it can join the waters from the
waters from the west out of the Mis-
souri,. Nobody can say with confidence
that sueh a formidable combination is
now threatening US, but it is not I'M
reasonable to suggest such possibil-
ity.
There are embankments built to
fence out the foods on both sides of
the river, practically from Cairo to
the Gulf of Mexico making system of
di kes, which we call Ievees, nearly 1900
miles long. This system contains
about 250oo0,00 cubic yards of en-
bankment, which has cost some sixty
millions of dollars, of which the United
States has paid $23 100000, the other
S3T 100000 having been paid by the
states, chiefly Mississippi and Louis
lana, although Arkansas, Tennessee
and Missouri have contributed smaller
shares The immensely of this work
may be guessed at by comparing it
with the excavation in the Culebra cut
of rho Panama canal, with which most
of us are now more or less familiar.
There the yardage is approximately
10000, 900, about onethird as much as
viii be in the leves system when com
pleted There the work is eoncentrat-
ed, permitting the use of machinery
entirely while here the work is spread
over q vast distance and has been exc
euted by the labor of men and mules.
The s23 900 900 expended by the gov
errment Is matter of exact record.
and shows the total amount expended
BY the national government to June
30, 1909 The cost above S6o.000,000
is arrived at by considering only such
parts OF the levses as are in serviee
today. The apparent amount spent by
the states, ss7 100000, does not fairly
represents the proportion of the ex-
pense which the states have borne, be
cause the states have been building
ievees for century, and the river
which built this vast alluvial region
possesses and exercises the power to
take it away AZ pleasure, 50 that thous
ands of acres of lands wi tn the levees
on them have been carried away by
the tremendous current. Miles and
miles of levee have thus gone into the
river with the banks that bore them
and new levees had to be constructed
farther back. All this lost constTue
ton is, In the figures given above,
thrown upon the states, and 1T vastly
increases the amount that should ap
pear to their credit. Records are hard
to get at, and exact figures cannot be
except for the national ex-
penaiture, but is safe to assume that |
states and individuals have furnished /
81 for every 81 put up by the United |
States. On account of this great loss I
by eaving, somewhat more than 3d.
10000 required to put in the addition
IF 55,eoo,o00 yards now needed will
eventually be required for completion.
The country has many problems to
solve, but none of more Importance
Nhan the control of it's great river.
The land contingent to this great
stream Is parti eularly fertile and pro-