The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1913-05-10
CONTROL RESERVOIRS AND THE
DAYTON FLOOD.

lItc ScCiciitiilC hiuctlCdI, oiiC VI diC
most reliable journals published, and
which is doing such magnificent work
for the levee system of the Mississippi
Valley, has another excellent article on
This question in a recent issue, which We
publish below:
Nothing is more greatly needed just
now, in any discussion of the proper
methods of control of the Mississippi
River and its tributaries, than proper
point of prospective and reasonable
sense of proporti m. The area covered
by the watershed of the Mississippi is so
vast, and the localities affected by the
floods are separated by such great dis
tances, that the point of view, even Of
the most serious and earnest lay student
of the problem, has been altogether linn
ited-too much affected by what the
thinker or writer or speaker happens to
See with his own eyes.
In the presence of such flood as that
at Dayton, Ohio. we are apt to believe
that the rainfall was absolutely UMPIRE
cedented. As matter of fact, it is prob
alb lie that from time immemorial the rain
storms of the Mississippi watershed,
both in the intensity and duration of the
precipitation, have been just about the
same as they are to-day. The Dayton
flood wac in no sense the act of God
rather it should be termed the price
which we pay, in this particular direc-
ton, for our modern civilization. The
floods are the result of the industry of
the pioneer with his ak and pillow, and
of the modern farmer and road-builder,
with the ditching and constant effort.
direct or indirect, to get the water which
falls from the clouds as quickly as posi-
bic into the river channels.
In olden days, when the districts af-
fected by the recent rainfall were COW
cred with dense forests, and denser I'M
dergr with, it took from two to three
weeks for the water to get into the river.
To-day, thanks to the general clearing
I'D and cultivation of the country, the
water from transforms of the same ma. =
nitude will be in the rivers within two
or three days time. On the other hand,
while the farmer has been smoothing the
way for rapid run-of of the water, the
dweller in the cities has been encroach-
ing steadily upon the channels which
nature has prepared and found sufficient
to carry the food waters comfortably
down to the sea. By piling and bulk
heading, areas, which properly belong
to the high water channel, have been
mulcted thefefrom for the erection OF
factories, wharves and warehouses.
Bridges have been thrown across the
channels, frequently with massive piers
and lengthy abutments, reducing the
total cross-section available for the flow
of the water fully fifty per cent below
that which nature had found to be neces-
sary at time when the Iun- a of the
transforms, in any given period Of time,
was only from one-fifth to one-tenth OF
what it is to-day.
Can the foods be prevented by refor-
estation? Yes-provided the farmers will
replant them and allow the flood lands
of the upper Ohio to return to natures
wilderness conditions, and if the citizens
Of Dayton and other towns subject to
foods will blow up their bridge piers and
approaches, and rae all artificial struct-