EECLAMATION OF LOUISIANA WET PKAIRIE LAN'DS. 431 



METHODS OF RECLAMATION. 

 EARLY METHODS. 



Some years ago systematic efforts looking toward the reclamation 

 of these fertile marsh lands began, and it is interesting to note that as 

 early as 1883-84, 1,300 acres were reclaimed by one company. Dur- 

 imr the jrreat flood of 1884, however, the levees were broken and 

 further work ceased for the time. Later, Mr. J. B. Watkins reclaimed 

 a larire area in southwestern Louisiana, and in ''Tide Marshes of the 

 United States"" he gives the following description of his methods: 



Out plan of reclamation is to build dikes along the Gulf, rivers, lakes, and bayous of 

 sufficient height and strength to prevent overflow of each in the event of floods from 

 rain and storm tides, and in this we will be assisted by the natural levees found in many 

 places along these waters. We cut, parallel to each other, and one-half mile apart, 

 canals 18 feet wide and 6 feet deep. At right angles with these, at intervals of 2^ miles. 

 we cut larger canals, thus forming the land into oblong blocks one-half mile by 2^ miles, 

 each containing 800 acres. Across these blocks at proper intervals we cut lateral 

 ditches 30 inches deep by 8 inches wide at the bottom, flared to 30 inches wide at the 

 top. 



The canals are cut, the levees formed, and the dikes are, to a considerable extent, 

 built by the useof powerful floating steam dredges. Smaller ditches are cut by ditchers 

 propelled by steam power, passing through but once, at the rate of IJ miles per hour. 



At proper localities we erect automatic flood gates, by means of which we control the 

 stage of water in the canals, and the necessary volume of water is regulated to some 

 extent by the ebb and flow of the tide. This is supplemented by the use of powerful 

 wind pumps, and when the natural elements will not accomplish the work we readily 

 move upon the canals to the spot our ditching, plowing, and cultivating engines and 

 attach them to pumps. Thus arranged, with control of the water, these blocks of land 

 are in condition for the most successful rice culture. 



In the rice and sugar belt, in the southern part of the State, the land 

 ranges from 2 to 8 feet or more above mean gulf level, and the swamps, 

 bayous, bays, and rivers with which the section is interspersed furnish 

 the outlet system by which the drainage water ma}^ be carried to the 

 Gulf. In a majority of cases it is necessary to levee a part or all of a 

 plantation in order to protect it from the overflows in times of flood, 

 and, also, in regions near the gulf coast, to protect it from backwater 

 and high tides, especially at times when the prevailing southeast 

 winds are blowing. At such times the waters along inland streams 

 near the coast may be raised as much as from 3 to 5 feet from this 

 cause. In this connection might be mentioned the fact that on the 

 Matthews plantation in La Fourche Parish it was considered that 

 usually the pum])s had to operate only after a rainfall of 4 inches or 

 more in twenty-four hoins, but when the southern winds made high 

 tides in the bayou they were started for as small as a 2-inch rainfall. 



L'ntil very recent years the ditch systems for the reclamation of 

 sugar lands were nearly identical. Often it seemed that the chief 



oU. S. Dept. Agr.,Mi8c. Spec. Rpt. 7. 



