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the State are presented for our consideration — one by the 

 State, the other leaving the whole matter to individual land- 

 iiolders. If the State should not drain them, the land might 

 be sold with a condition to the title that they should be 

 drained. 



Mr. Cockrum remarked, that from his knowledge of swamp 

 lands, which was considerable, he believed that great advan- 

 tages could be obtained with but little expense. At Honey 

 Island, in the State of Mississippi, there is a small river with 

 large bends, and connected with them were a great many 

 bayous. Some twelve or fifteen years ago a canal was dug 

 across one of these bends, thus shortening very much the 

 distance the water had to pass over. Through this pass the 

 water run with rapidity, and the result was that the farms 

 around the bend were drained, and immediately doubled in 

 value. 



With the Potoka river he was quite familiar, from the first 

 settlement of the country. In early times, there were many 

 beaver there, and these animals built their dams across creeks 

 emptying into it. These dams turned the direction of the 

 streams, giving to them winding courses. The swamps of the 

 Potoka were found where these dams existed. The bends 

 were often from a mile to a mile and a half around, when a 

 stone could be thrown across from their commencement to 

 where they terminated. By cutting a canal across these 

 places, he believed the swamps would be drained. The cost 

 of the canal would be small, compared with the benefits de- 

 rived. 



Mr. Williams said that in Knox county, the lands along 

 the river were kept wet by its overflowing its banks. Creeks 

 emptying into the river, were backed up for three or four 

 miles. With a view of avoiding these overflows, he had in- 

 troduced the bill now before the House, authorizing the for- 

 mation of companies to construct levees. He thought it 

 would be a better policy for the State to give the swamp 

 lands to the counties. 



