The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-12
The Reclamation Special Leaves Chicago Wednes-
 day to Tour South
TRAIN WILL STOP
 AT BIRMINGHAM
Government Lecturers Will Tell the Southern Farmers How to Re- claim Swamps as West
 Reclaimed Deserts

Memphis June 1.-The southern farmer Is to be shown how. by reversing meth ods, he can profit to a like extent as the farmer of the west in reclaiming aban- doned land If the arid lands of the western states can be made fertile through irrigation. the swamp lands of the south may likewise be made produc- tive by drainage, is contended by experts of the department of agriculture, and to demonstrate this a reclamation special viii start from Chicago Wednesday for a tour of the south over the Illinois Cen tra lines.
 Chicago. June 11.-(Special.) )-To demon strate that wet ditches through the swamp land areas of the south and east are of as great economics importance as are the dry ditches created by the government to lead water to arid lands in the irrigated west, the management of the Illinois Central and the Yazoo and Mis- sssippi Valley Railroad companies, CO., operating with the government. is to op- crate through the south train, leaving here June IA. to be known as the ''re- clamation special" carrying lecturers rep resenting the United States reclamation service and the geological survey.
 c. L, Blanchard, statistician of the reclamation service, and M. c. Leighton. chief hydrographer of the geological sur Ney, will travel on the special MT. Blanchard will tell of the work done by the government in the west. while Mir. Leighton will tell the southerners of the the improvement of swamp areas. and also of the importance to the national health of such development.
 Touch Sixty-one Cities
 The tour, during which lectures will be delivered at 61 towns and cities, has been designed to give impetus to a movement launched recently by the National IT, rigation congress for swamp land im- prorements. Statistics of the government show there are s0,00o000 acres of such lands capable of drainage. and one of the undertakings of the irrigation con gress, which meets here this year, will be to obtain such legislation as will make possible swamp reclamation by the gov ernment.
 The railway campaign will continue from towns in southern Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico, taking in Illinois, Ken lucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas. Thousands of booklets telling of the reclamation move nlent as it relates to swamp lands have been prepared, and will be distributed by the railway.
 The train Is to comprise a baggage car, one coach and a business car. The coach will be employed as a meeting hall by the government lecturers Two stere- opticon outfits will be taken, a smaller one to be used in the coach and the other for bigger halls. The tour will end at Fulton, Ky. on June 30. Besides many smaller places, the train will reach such points as Cairo, H.. Memphis, Gov ington and Jackson, Tenn; Birmingham, Ala. Jackson, Vicksburg and Natchez, Miss, and New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La. A special effort is to be made to interest farmers merchants and manufac- tuerers, and arrangements are to be made for largely-attended gatherings at the more important points.