The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-05-27

DuI tdunCnGQ DOiQiy lilC Id SSl
program that is the business marvel
of the past decade IN America.
Flood Control
The Mississippi skirts this mann
moth plantation on the west. The
basic requisite therefore was food
control on this mighty river. There
has been no break in the levees on
this property since 1896, although
there were two record waters IN
1918 and 1916. The levees held I'M
der the old plan of protection. Now,
however, absolute security has been
attained through the cooperation of
the u. s. Government, IN the pro-
vision for the expenditure of $780,
100000 on the Mississippi River
levees. The levees are now built to
the II. S. Engineers Commission
grade, which adds one-third more
dirt in the body of the levee and
adds six feet to the height, giving
beyond preadventure perfect protec-
ton to these and all lands along the
river.
Drainage
The work of reclamation has been
made complete on these farms.
There are thirty-six miles of big
dredged canals, twenty-four to one
hundred feet wide and six feet to
twenty feet in depth, and there are
an innumerable number of smaller
bitches. The control is such that
the bitches and canals have to care
only for the rain that falls on the
farm. Although the land is level
with alluvial soil, the drainage is so
perfect it may be worked almost
Immediately after rainfall. The
thought held by many that the Mis-
sissippi Delta is a swampy, ma
larial, disease-stricken area is abb
solutely erroneous. With the app
plication of proper methods it is
not only dry ard fertile but is as
hea1thful as any part of the country.
The top soil has been found to be
as deep as forty feet, as at that
depth in digging wells, cypress logs
have been found.
The soil has an abundance of all
the elements required for complete
fertility. Phosphorus, potash and
lime are present in inexhaustible
quantities and it is only after many
years of constant cropping that
nitrogen becomes deficient. But all
that is necessary to restore its origi-
nal productiveness is a years rota-
ton in any of the clovcrs, COW peas
or other leguminous plants or ap-
plications of commercial nitrates
It is a remarkable fact that all
winter and summer legumes, that
will grow anywhere, will grow in
the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta.
Management
The President was born and
reared on farm and he has a love
for "the dirt" that is a passionate
affection. Professor J.. w. Fox, the
general manager of the great plan
tation, who for ten years has been
the strong right arm of the big
Boss" exclaimed, "There is no finer
land on earth" Prof. Fox prior
to his service was for seven years
Director of the Mississippi Expert
ment Station. He has worked side
by side with Salisbury in the big
endeavor. The assistant general
manager, Mr.. B. ]. Young, whose
term of service also has been for a
decade, is a trained civil engineer.
Under his direct supervision has
fallen the surveying and dredging
in the reclamation program.
The capitol home of the great
plantation is the town of Scott,
named for that splendid Southerner,
Col. Charles Scott, who is now
dead. Col. Scott represented in his
| life the vaulting ideas of the South.
Other towns of the plantations
through which the Yazoo and Mis-
sissippi Valley Railroad runs, are
Lamont, Nugent, Lake Vista, Dee
son and Estiil. With 81 miles hard
surface roads and 232 miles of hard
graded road, the Scott Plantation
has an area of $1,000 acres, and is
| divided into seventeen units, each
unit is community, the whole be-
ing a principality or empire in itself.
The homes for the tenants and
barns for the livestock have been
standardized.
The operation has called for a
steady expansion. A new unit of
two thousand FIVE hundred acres has
been recently added. The work is
so thoroughly systematized that
the work of clearing, dredging and
building is promptly executed. 1t
IS no idle prophecy that the units
may be expanded from sixty-fve
thousand acres and an Investment
| Of fxuerafxy r,1Sf1S1r, J1Ifa~- ,.,4,f -
will embrace several hundred thou
sand acres ard an investment of
a hundred million.
These lands will grow cotton for
twenty years without rotation. In
this entire plan Of action the most
modern machinery is employed.
Population
There is a population on the
farms of about 10000 negroes and
500 white people. At each tenants
or employees house may be seen
a garden, poultry. high bred hogs
and cows. The set policy has
evolved plans whereby cotton is the
sales crop, but there is also pro-
duced food stuff for tenants. EN-
ployees and livestock. 1t will be a
revelation to thousands to know
that twelve acres is the average
farm for a man and wife. IF there
are children the acreage is increased
until the maximum is about twenty
four acres, thus exploding the the
ory of at least forty acres and a
mule"