The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-11-25
MISSOURI DRAINAGE
ENTERPRISES

work on the part of the State Burea
of Labor Statistics developed that a
the commencement of 1921 Missouri
had 1877 farms, more or less in bot
tom lands, reporting extensive artifi
cial drainage facilities, with 1857.
similarly located which still needev
such modern advantage. The off
cial value of Missouri's drainage en-
terprises, completed or about to b.
completed, operative and non-opera
tive, is $31 ,067, 729. The total area Of
lowlan6s included in the areas now
protected, and to be thus protected, is
2, 980,265 acres. The present opera.
tive drainage activities cover 1886, 204
acres the state over and represent d
total investment of $24,749,735. The
non-operative activities are designed
to drain 384,O61 more acres of low
swampy land and will cost when COM
pleted $6,317,994. A large part of the
area now in operative drainage dis,
tricts is still uncultivated.
Southeast Missouri Leads in Drained
Acres
The first bulletin on the subject,
constituting advance information
from the "Missouri Red Book, 1921"
issued today by Commissioner VIM
H. Lewis, the Bureau of Labor Stats
tics announces that the drained acre
age in the 1877 farms protected
against standing back-water aggre-
gated 1853, 1858 out of a total of a.
1872, 1866 improved acres contained in
the 263,003 farms the state is Off
cially credited with having at the
commencement of 1921.
The 1852 other farms in the low
lands of Missouri needing drainage
enterprises have an aggregated area
of S30,693 swampy acres. With the
acreage of the two totaled it indicates
that 1,690,356 acres of improved Mis-
souri, farm lands are in the low por-
tions of the state, chiefly in Southeast
Missouri, including, there, the coun-
ties Pemiscot, Dunklin, Butler, New
Madrid, Stoddard, Mississippi and
Scott, the most fertile section of the
state, known the country oyer as the
land of cotton, watermelons, cante-
loupeS, rice, peanuts, wheat and corn.
When the deduction is made it indi-
Gates that the other 22,142,510 i'm
proved acres of Missouri farm lands
now in 263,O04 farms are more or less
higher in altitude and therefore not
subject to overflow.
Total Farm Land in Missouri
In reality the land contained in
Missouri's 263,004 farms totals a.
774,679 acres, with 24,832,966 acres
recorded as being improved, a fact
which suggests that fully 9,941 TAB
acres are still unimproved and there
fore uncultivated. With the total
area of land embraced in Missouri's
operating drainage enterprises placed
at 2,596,204 acres and with 1,474,30z
acres of this area officially recorded
as being unimproved lands, it indi-
Gates that 1,121,902 acres which are
now regularly drained by special dis
trict canals and bitches, are still in
timber or have only been cut over and
therefore remain uncultivated.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics bull
letn dealing with the interesting
problem of drainage, Missouri Farm
Lands, 1921" prepared as the result
of research work on the part of Su-
pervisor of Statistics A. T. Edmon-
ston, placed the total value Of all
Missouri drainage enterprises, com
pleted or nearing completion on Jan.
/, 1921, at $24,749,735. Of this total
sum S20,723,128 represented the CAPT
tai invested in all drainage projects
up to Dec. 81, 1919, and the other $4,-
O26,6 07 the additional outlay required,
the same day, to complete all such en-
terprises then uncompleted. All these
facts and figures represent the re-
turns from the first statewide census
of drainage enterprises ever taken in
Missouri under the auspices of the
United States Department of Com
merce, now for the first time avail
able for publicity. There is no Off
cial datum for past years for compar-
alive purposes to reveal the strides
Missouri has made in this respect in
the last decade.
Drainage Activities in North Missouri
Counties in North Missouri included
in active drainage enterprises cover
ng a total state area of 2,596,204
acres, are: Carroll, Ray, Charlton,
Pike, Atchison, Holt, Nodaway, And
rev, Buchanan, Worth, Marion, Lewis,