CHAPTER III 



HUMID AREAS AND THEIR RECLAMATION 



THERE are large areas, at the present time, unavailable 

 for cropping because of the presence of excessive amounts 

 of water. In the United States they probably aggregate 

 over 135,000 square miles. According to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, 1 there are in the United States 

 79,000,000 acres of land, exclusive of tidal marshes, that 

 cannot be cultivated because of excessive moisture. This 

 aggregate is reclassified in part as follows : 52,665,000 

 acres continually wet ; 6,826,000 acres wet grazing lands ; 

 14,000,000 acres periodically overflowed ; 4,766,000 acres 

 farm lands periodically swampy. It is asserted that all 

 of this land could be drained at a net profit of 

 $1,594,000,000 measured by increase in land values, 

 with an increased annual income of $273,000,000. They 

 are all called swamp land, and are variously classified. 



84. Common swamps. There are still left some ex- 

 tended areas of flat prairie lands which function imper- 

 fectly or negatively, because of the presence of excessive 

 water. 



On the Atlantic slope there are some very large fresh- 

 water swamp areas, of which the Dismal Swamp in Vir- 

 ginia is an example. These swamps aggregate many 

 thousand square miles in area. 



85. Alluvial plains. There are considerable areas of 

 alluvial lands liable, at times, to overflow, but at all 



1 Year Book, Dept. of Agriculture, 1912, p. 226. 

 58 



