44 



Land Planning Report 



Mississippi Delta Region 



The Mississippi River, from southern Illinois to the 

 GuJf of Mexico, flows for 500 miles o^ier a low, flat, 

 flooil plain. South of this it continues across the delta 

 plain wliich it has built outward for 150 miles into the 

 Gulf. The Delta proper, together with the flood plain, 

 forms a regional unit some 650 miles long and from 40 

 to 125 miles wide, with perhaps an average width of 

 75 miles. 



This region may be described as 50,000 square miles 

 of allu\dum, across which the river meanders in a be- 

 wildering series of loops ami turns. The average fall 

 of the Mississippi is from 6 to 12 inches per mile through 

 this region, a circumstance wliich results in a very 

 sluggish rate of flow. The river is confined between 

 levees of its own building (reinforced by man-made em- 

 bankments) and it has aggraded its channel many feet 

 above the level of the plain. During flood periods, 

 crevassing of the levees occvn-s and large areas of the 

 back country are flooded. 



General Appearance.' — The Mississippi Delta region 

 is monotonously level in appearance, covered with 

 rather fertile clays and fine silts, and was originally 

 numtled with a forest of hardwoods. Here and there 

 the land is so poorly drained that prairie or canebrake 

 replaces forest. Occasional ridges rise above the flood 

 plain and exhibit sandj', sandy silt, or gravelly soils. 



A tremendous amount of money and effort has al- 

 ready been expended upon flood control and drainage 

 in this region, but no general reclamation has been 

 affected. Neither has any provision been made to 

 utilize the silt burden of the Mississippi floodwaters 

 annually to refertilize the region. 



Population and Land Use. — A small proportion of 

 land in this deltaic region has been cleaned and made 

 to yield abundant crops of cotton, corn, and sugarcane. 

 The United States, however, has scarcely begun to 

 utilize its alluvial lands. The Mississippi Delta today 

 contains probably 4 million inhabitants. In contrast 

 to this, on the Hoang-ho Delta of Cliina, an area of 

 identical size supports between 20 and 30 million 

 people on soU no better and under clhnatic conditions 

 less productive than those of the Mississippi Delta. 

 The geographic adjustments which obtaui on the 

 alluvial lands of North China will probably never be 

 ai)proximated m the United States, but it is clearly 

 evident that, if utiUzed carefully, the Mississippi Delta 

 lands are capable of supportmg a considerable propor- 

 tion of the American people. 



At present, conditions in this region are unique. A 

 large percentage of the land is still in forest or swamp, 

 because of its susceptibility to overflow, and agricul- 

 tural settlement is confined to the natural levees and 

 other better-drained parts. These are intensively 



cultivated by a relatively dense population and present 

 a striking contrast to the back swamp areas. 



In the poorly drained areas there is much poten- 

 tially productive land but to render it cultivable would 

 require large drainage and. flood protection works. 

 Along with these areas of productive land, there is a 

 considerable amount of less fertile soil. In planning 

 many of the existing drainage units the land was not 

 carefully classified, with the result that some farms he 

 on good son, wlule others are on poor soil. Low in- 

 comes on these latter have occasioned tax deliquency, 

 and this in turn has almost compelled delinquency on 

 the better lands. The reason for this lies in the fact 

 that drainage district taxes and assessments are pooled 

 and applied to the entire mdebtedness of the district 

 instead of being used to reduce the indebtedness of 

 individual farms. Hence, an individual farmer is 

 faced with the choice of carrying the indebtedness of 

 his delmquent neighbors or of defaulting on his own 

 obligations. 



A very large share of the ijnproved land is in cotton 

 (70 percent in the Yazoo Basm). There is an almost 

 complete lack of yeoman farms, 85 percent of the farm 

 land being in plantations and 86 percent being worked 

 by Negro tenants. Alosquitoes, nuilaria, floods, and 

 high land values have combined to keep small white 

 farmers out of the Delta, and hence the popiflation is 

 predominately Negro. Per-acre crop yields are well 

 above the averages for the four States involved, and 

 average incomes for landowners are fairly satisfactory. 

 Incomes for tenants, however, are far from satisfactory, 

 illiteracy is very high, and health standards very un- 

 satisfactory. 



Areas Subject to Flood. — A large amount of poten- 

 tially productive land is luuitilized because of the lack 

 of reclamation measures. Numerous areas already 

 under cidtivation, however, present very grave prob- 

 lems. For example, within a narrow strip extending 

 along the river from Memphis to Vicksburg, a large 

 amount of the land is farmed. Over the entire strip 

 in question crops are uncertain, owing to the hkelihood 

 of their being washed away by floodwaters mside the 

 levee or saturated by seep waters outside it. 



A wide strip along the eastern edge of the Yazoo 

 Basin is frequently overflowed. Hence farming is 

 here both dangerous and undependable. A large 

 portion of this is needed for retaining reservoirs in 

 order to eft'ect flood control. It might be made to 

 serve additional service as public forest and game 

 preserve. 



Similarly, a considerable area at the southern end 

 of the Yazoo is largely uneconomic for agriculture. 

 More than 80 percent of the farmers in tliis district 

 are Negroes, and 40 percent of the farms are operated 



