The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1917-09-14
To the Editor of the Marietta Jour-

nal:
The question of drainage is to my
mind so important and necessary to
the welfare of our county that /, for
one, feel that a regular campaign
should be launched by the newspa-
pers, the county commissioners and
all business men in the county with
the object in view of so impressing
the great benefits and advantages of
drainage upon the owners Of
our creek bottom lands that the work
would be entered upon at once and
not delayed for years.
/ have been all over Cobb county
and am familiar with the quality of
the soil on our creeks and large
branches and / do not hesitate to say
that the richness of this soil can not
be surpassed anywhere in this coun-
try. Our creek bottom soils have
been formed from silt washed down
from our clay land uplands and is
as rich in fertilizing value as it can
be-
But so long as this soil remains
saturated with water it is worth prac-
tically nothing either in the produc-
ton of corn or for pasturage.
The truth is, a lot of our cows
have died from eating the swamp land
grass when it was covered with mud
left on it by the overflow of our
creeks. So it appears that should we
only use our bottom lands for pastur-
age it would pay US handsomely to
have them ditched out so as to carry
the water of our biggest rains.
Some of our farmers have expend-
ed lots of energy clearing up their
bottom lands and cutting insufficient
bitches and in almost every case their
hard labor is practically thrown a.
way, for it often happens that in dry
seasons they get these lands planted
in corn and it starts off with such
promising results and is great plea
sure to the owner when in one days
time the freshet comes and over
flows the stream, and running the
entire crop of the hopeful farmer.
In such cases as these the mistake
was made in not cutting a ditch large
enough to control the flood water,
and by individual effort this is almost
hopeless task.
This is where the drainage law steps
in, if invited by the cooperation and
invitation of the farmers, and rem
ders its valuable assistance, helping
the land owner to more cheaply and
more effectively cut such a canal as
will carry off any of the hardest rains
and place him where he can lay down
to sleep at night with full assurance
that he will not wake up next morn
ing and view his creek bottom corn
flooded and ruined
1t tells him that if he and his neigh
bors will work together and form a
Drainage District such results will
be secured that full crop is safe and
sure every year, whereas with our
present system IF bottom Land cult
walton one may plant but he has alb
solutely no assurance of ever gather
ing crop.
The eastern or northeastern part OF
the State are rapidly draining out
their bottom lands through the form
alton of these Drainage Districts anc
Walton County (Which we recently
visited) is taking the lead. This
county commenced about four years
ago and the business men of Monroe
and the whole County got behind the
movement with all their influence
and enthusiasm and have kept push
ing until now they are fast complet
ing the drainage of all their creel
lands and now have from three thou
sand to five thousand acres ready tt
make big corn crops.
These men have placed Walton
Courty where she will never have tt
ship in another car Of corn but on tn,
other hand she is going to be a big
seller of corn if the land owners dt
not go to building silos and feeding
cattle land this is what l predic
they are going to do next year,
l regret that every creek bottom
land owner in our county was no
with our Cobb County bunch of far
mers few days ago when we mad
the trip to Walton.
Every one of US, without singl
exception, was deeply impressed wit