1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



37; 



the results are dcemctl certain, while the expense 

 is conipaiatively iiothiiitj. 



Mr. M. also stated the result of another ex- 

 periment tried upon one of his api)le-ircos lasl 

 «prinir. It is a fine, ihrilty, hcallhy tree, about 25 

 or 30 years old, hut has liever, in any one year, 

 produced over about two bushels of a|)ples ; while 

 in blossom last sprintj, he ascended the tree and 

 sprinkled plaster freely on the blossoms, and the 

 result is, that it will this season bear 20 bushels ol' 

 tipples. Now if ihe plaster will prevent blast, it 

 is a discovery of <rreat importance. Mr. M. was 

 led to make the ex[)eriment by readin<T an account 

 of trees ailjomin<; a meadow where plaster had 

 been sown at the time there was a light breeze in 

 the direction of the orchard, the trees contiguous 

 to the meadow bearing well, while the others pro- 

 iluced no fruit. 



ON THE GREAT RAFT IX RED RIVER. 



To the Editor of the ranners' Register. 



I do not possess as accurate infiirmation about 

 the great raft in Ked river as I ought, to justify as 

 minute a description of it as you wish ; but I give 

 the best I have, only warranting it to be substan- 

 tially correct. 



The raft is an obstruction of fallen trees and 

 logs, that have entirely reached from one bank of 

 the river to the other, and firmly fixed in ils bot- 

 tom and sides, and has, with intervals of unob- 

 structed or open river, occupied a space of from 

 130 to 150 miles in extent. Over this space, in a 

 thousand places, a loot passenger can cross with- 

 out wetting his feet, and see the slow current be- 

 low him. About one half the river has been filled 

 with alluvion, on these logs, which has given 

 growth to a dense mass of cotton-wood and wil- 

 low trees, of various sizes, forming a shelving 

 bank, that will never be removed by the current. 

 The future river will be the inroads made by the 

 engineer, and the current of the stream, on the 

 other bank of the river. The great business of the 

 engineer has been to enable the stream to clear 

 itself out. When the country was first occupied 

 by the whites, the raft was about 150 miles above 

 Na'chitoches, and about 20 or 30 miles below the 

 bayon or outlet of Lake Bestineau. At this bayon 

 Capt. H. Shreeve, the II. Stales' engineer, com- 

 menced his operations, about five years ago. The 

 raft once formed, of course stopped all the drift- 

 wood, and increased from 1 to 3 miles a-year, 

 according to the number and heights ol" the an- 

 nual freshets, and decreased below about half that 

 space. The growth of a rich swamp being gene- 

 rally sappy woods, were rapid in their decay, sub- 

 jected as they were, by their position, to be alter- 

 nately wet and dry ; and as they decayed, were 

 loosened and carried off by the current, which 

 made it again an open river. This accession above 

 and secession below have perhaps been going on 

 for ages. The unequivocal remains of the raft, in 

 low stages of water, may be seen in numerous 

 places several hundred miles below where it late- 

 ly was, and some nearly as low asthedisembogue- 

 ment into the Mississippi. The original forma- 

 tion ol' the raft may probably be attributed to one 

 of the following causes. The Red river is a 

 stream of immense length and great depth, com- 

 VoL. VI.-48 



pared with its width, and is very crocked ; its S'/^ 

 a very fine sand, with a jxire vegetable deposit; \: 

 length exceeds 1500 miles; its depth avcra<j - 

 from 15 10 20 feet, and its width about 200 van 

 as near as my eye-sight enabled me (o judj.- 

 The swamp shows that the river has frerjuenn 

 changed its channel; and this, at some distant dali 

 may have occurred on the rising ofsome great flesl 

 et making a new channel, which has been chokeii 

 by the falling in of the timber from both sides, 

 coupled with lh(; drift-wood. Once stopped, all the 

 other conse(iucnces are very natural. Another 

 cause, and more probable, may be that tlie Missis- 

 sippi, receiving its waters from points more distant 

 and much higher up the coimtiy, raises it higher, 

 and backs the water u|) all its tributaries below 

 the JMissouri from 20 to50 miles. I have passed 

 up and down the Red river when it was so backed 

 up, and showed little or no current. The drift- 

 wood must accumulate at these places in immense 

 quantities; and you can easily suppose how pro- 

 bable it would be for 2 or 3 miles of drill-logs, 

 with their roots and limbs to them, intersecting 

 each other, all seeking to pass out at the same 

 time, as the Mississippi should fill, would reach 

 tiora side to side of the river and lodge, and the 

 press of the upper logs would make the jam com- 

 plete. I give the above as the probable causes. 

 They are entitled to no more respect than as they 

 may be correct deductions from the lacts above- 

 stated. The raft once removed will never form 

 again where the river is open to its proper width. 

 If it should be, by the back-water of the Missis- 

 sippi, it will be at a point below where 50,000 bags 

 oj' cotton now have to pass to market, and will be 

 removed belbre it can have time to form into any 

 material obstruction, within the upper part of the 

 raft, where the river has no one current half its 

 proper width, in its present state of clearing itself. 

 Such an event is very probable, and the engineer, 

 two years ago, conmiunicated to the war depart- 

 ment such probability, and a steamer has been 

 built, to remain a year or two, till the river clears it- 

 self to its proper width. 



The effects produced by the stoppage of the 

 usual passage of so large a body of water, and 

 that swelled to more than double the amount by 

 the periodical annual freshets, as was to be ex- 

 pected, have been very great. Immense bodies 

 of fertile lands have been overflowed, large lakes 

 have been formed, (now navigated by steamboats,) 

 such as Lakes Bestineau and Caddo, or Soda; and 

 large rivers or outlets created, which, so soon as 

 the river is compelled by man to return to its ac- 

 customed channel, and shall have worked out a 

 depth equal to its depth above and below, will be 

 restored very much to their Ibrmer condition. I 

 think it probable that in ten years, fine crops ol 

 cotton and corn will grow on the bottom ol" those 

 lakes, now the tract of the steamboats, and fifty 

 thousand acres of the richest land wiil be^ re- 

 deemed from nearly a perpetual overflow. The 

 raft region, for the space ot" near 500 miles, pre- 

 sents generally two streams or outlets and inlets, 

 as the upper bayous that create lake Bestineau on 

 the east, and lake Caddo on the west. Where the 

 Caddo waters, come in, just above Shreeveport, 

 the river is large and fine, but soon expands into 

 the Bayon Pere; and where that comes in, it agaia 

 expands into the Bondieu, again coming in near 

 Alexandria; and thev each carry as much water 



