176 OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 



will be called in to accomplish this object. Its application in 

 Holland to the draining ot* the Haerlem meer, and even for the 

 reduction of the Zuyder-Zee, which the late war, it appears, has 

 indeed suspended, leaves but little doubt of its full efficacy for a 

 purpose of inferior magnitude. Lands susceptible of cultivation 

 do not upon an average extend to three quarters of a mile from the 

 river, although in some places they may reach to two miles, but 

 in other situations do not exceed one quarter of a mile : there is 

 no doubt that a scrupulous attention to the perfection of the em- 

 bankments will every where augment the quantity of cultivable 

 land; and we hazard nothing in predicting that at some future 

 day, the productive surface of lower Louisiana will be multiplied 

 tenfold : a rich and enterprising population, conducted by a wise 

 and patriotic government, will pierce, with navigable canals, 

 this alluvial country in all directions : grand issues will be pro- 

 vided to conduct to the ocean the superfluous waters which now 

 drown, for three months of the year, nine tenths of the country; 

 the whole surface of the land will then be reclaimed and become 

 lit for the habitation of man ; the richest harvests will be col- 

 lected from a soil of the most exuberant fertility, which per- 

 haps no time can exhaust: should however vegetation at length 

 seem to advance with a sluggish pace, the planter has his reme- 

 dy at hand, he may call m the aid of the elements; let the 

 waters of a single inundation flow over his field, and it will re- 

 ceive a manure which 20 years cultivation cannot absorb. Re- 

 servoirs might be formed, as in ancient Egypt, to retain a por- 

 tion of the waters of the inundation, but this happy climate 

 does not require such precaution; the season of the inundation 

 furnishes less rain than at other times, but it is so ordered by the 

 course of nature, that about the time the waters retire, refresh- 

 ing showers fall almost daily throughout lower Louisiana, which 

 continue to invigorate the crops until the approach to the har- 

 vest season. 



The inundation takes place during the season that the 

 crops are under cultivation, and in the precise time when re- 

 quired for perfecting the culture of rice, which is therefore most 

 conveniently placed in the rear of the plantation; nor is the in- 

 undation necessary for any other species of crops, but on the 



