RECLAMATION OF LOUISIANA WET PRAIRIE LANDS. 435 



laro^e plantation, and it can readily be understood how its efficiency 

 is impaired by this pest. The following description of the plant is 

 taken from a report by F. F. Shafer, drainage engineer: 



The plant when young has a bulbous stem, but as this grows upward the enlarge- 

 ment disappears, apparently being absorbed by the stem, which is cylindrical and 

 hollow. The plant multiplies rapidly by sending out shoots or suckers from the base 

 of the bulb, the shootrf and roots seeming to start from the same place. The latter 

 grow in feather-shaped tufts, presenting a large surface to the water. They are 

 tender and break off readily, but, if not disturbed, grow downward 4 or 5 feet. In 

 the latter part of May a flowering stem appears which bears a spike of odorless flowers, 

 pale lavender in color, resembling the ordinary cultivated hyacinth. The stems 

 reach a diameter of one-half to three-fourths of an inch and in this vicinity frequently 

 extend 3 feet above the water surface. Crowding does not seem to hinder the 

 growth of the plant, and since it floats upon the surface of the water, wind, tide, and 

 currents tend to produce closely packed masses. When a ditch becomes filled with 

 these plants, the floating stems and roots offer a very serious obstruction to the flow 

 of water. Two or three years of undisturbed growth in a ditch will greatly reduce 

 its usefulness as a drainage channel. Booms are placed at the outlets of the drainage 

 canals to prevent the plants from floating into the ditches, but it is difficult to pre- 

 vent these booms being left open by people passing through in boats. 



The attempt has been made to use poisonous chemicals for the 

 eradication of these plants; this not only proved more or less ineffec- 

 tive, but the expense was far too great. On the Mattiiews planta- 

 tion, before mentioned, an attachment in the shape of a gridiron 

 some 7 by 8 feet in size was fastened to the dredge dipper and the 

 plants dipped up and dumped on the banks in a similar manner to 

 the operation of a dipper. The plants, when exposed to the hot sun, 

 soon die. The cost of removal b^^ this method amounts to about 

 0.4 cent per square yard for the area cleaned. On other plantations, 

 during the rainy periods the laborers use pitchforks to remove the 

 water hyacinths from the ditches. It is often necessary to repeat 

 the operation once or twice a month. The cost in this case is practi- 

 cally the same as by the use of the machine. In localities close to the 

 Gulf, where salt water prevails, the plants do not thrive. 



INTERIOR DITCH SYSTEMS. 



Although somewhat dependent upon the size and shape of the area 

 inclosed within the levees, the present general scheme of drainage 

 is more or less the same throughout this region. This system usually 

 includes a main "reservoir" canal, or canals, upon which, at some 

 convenient place, a pumping plant is installed. J.,eading into these 

 reservoirs are "collecting" ditches of somewhat smaller size, and at 

 right angles to these latter are "lateral" ditches which are still 

 smaller, and which usually feed into the collecting ditches, as illus- 

 trated by the Willswood plantation shown in figure 2 (p. 420). In 

 certain cases, as is shown by the plan of the Smithport j)lantati<)n in 

 figure 3 (p. 421), the collecting ditches are practically dispensed with 



