Evening star., 1927-05-24
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Then pack up your troubles in your
old kit bag
And mile-smile-smile"
Can any one imagine applying such
counsel to the flood-stricken refugees
of the Mississippi River flood? There
are 337,S54 sufferers homeless and
driven from their farms, waiting for
the waters to recede, yet the crest or
the flood has not even reached New
Orleans, and today 2,199,774 acres
are under many feet of flood water,
their crops now wiped out and sum-
mer rapidly approaching. 1t appears
inevitable that ruin, and only ruin,
must stare the deluged region in the
face.
But yesterday DR.. Warburton. OF
the Department of Agriculture. re
turned to Washington from tour OF
inspection, bringing an atmosphere or
hope and even optimism.
In regions north of the mississippi
Tennessee boundary, the water is re-
ceding, and farmers are hurrylng
back to their land. They find the
cotton, which had been well developed
before the flood, all destroyed. of
course, but most of the farm land
was flooded by back water, not current.
which has brought with it its cargo or
silt and rich fertility. In the leVee
breaks, where the current was swift,
it has deposited sand, destroying soil
fertility, but over the broad acres
there is a spread of the richest soil
brought down from Illinois and Mis-
souri,. Even in normal years it is estl-
mated that without floods the soil OF
the valley loses s200,000,000 worth of
fertility through erosion.
In preparing the field for cotton, 1t
is the practice to ploW SO as TO turn
two burrows against each other, MAX
ing a ridge, into which the cottonseed
is planted. Today, over vast areas,
these ridges remain, so that, while
the water may still fill the burrows,
the ridges are free, and men may
walk along them and plant the new
crop at once, without further ploWing.
DIR. Warburton gives assurance that
the flood will cause no Visible decrease
in the cotton crop, for even the flooded
region of Mississippi constitutes only
one-tenth of the area of the State, and
most of it can be replanted as late as
June 10.
Where cotton cannot be planted, the
farmers will still be able to put in soy
beans, COW pease, Sudan grass an1
sorghum, corn and possibly peanuts,
with all the vegetables they care to
work.
Farmers have long been scolded for
lack of efficiency in leaving their
plows and other farm tools exposed in
the fields instead Of being housed in
tool sheds. The flood has swept away
most of the sheds and their contents.
but most of the machinery, being han
died so "inefficiently" that it was
caught in the fields, just where the
flood found it, is still right there. All
that the farmer has to do is to back
up his mule, tie on the traces and go
ahead. However, many mules are
hors de combat from exposure.
Furthermore, DR.. Albert w. Wood,
chief of scientific work of the Depart
ment of Agriculture. adds the cheer
ing suggestion that the flood has prob
ably drowned all the boil weevils in
the flooded area. except such as are
web-footed. OF course, there are boil
weevils which may have followed the
mules up onto the levees or perched
in trees to watch the water go by, but
it will take special effort for such sur
vivors to get back to the land.
Weeds, too, have been obliterated
where the water stood, so that the
farms when reseeded will be cleaner of
pests than a hundred farm hands per
acre would make it.
In northwestern Mississippi, which
is known as the Yazoo Delta, there
has been in recent years an immigra-
tion of white laborers and independ-
ent farmers, whom the flood has dis
couraged, so that they are now pretty
generally leaving the lowlands to re-
turn to eastern Mississippi, but the
colOred population remains.
In the Sugar Bowl" region, below
New Orleans, all sugar cane has
been destroyed, and it will take some
years for new paintings to mature.
Planters there have been suffering
reverses in recent years, and there
will be more or less bankruptcy
among them. However, then can
get onto their lands, probably toward
the latter part of June. in time to
plant vegetables.
Through the Red Cross relief all
needed seed and tools will be supplied. |
and many refugees will cary the tents |
furnished them back 10 the farms, |
where the buildings have been swept |
away. 1t is the usual practice |
the South for plantation /
owners to stake their tenants with |
seed and food every Spring, charging |
the value advanced against the ten
ants share of the crop. This practice |
will be followed as usual this year,
and 1t Is Only the case which cannot !,
be thus prisStely staked that Will de.
pend upon ishe Red Cross funds for
supplies. some plantations thus take