LAND VALUES 



69 



16 horse hours if wagons are used. The milling time ranges from 

 four to ten man "hours per M. Red gum is particularly hard to 

 season. 



Summarizing the data for the bottomland species gives the 

 following results: 



Land Values. — The soil in this type has a large potential agri- 

 cultural value if it can be drained and protected from floods. 

 When this can be done it is easily worth $100 an acre for the pro- 

 duction of corn, cotton, or truck. But, unfortunately, this 

 involves great expense in nearly every case. A short ditch levee 

 will not answer. The ditches must be miles in length, carefully 

 leveled, and prop)erly interlaced. There is usually only a slight 

 fall and the distribution of this fall over an elaborate network of 

 ditches is an engineering task of no small magnitude. The 

 levees, too, must be conceived and constructed on a large scale. 

 Unless the river is kept within bounds for long stretches the 

 floods will turn the flank of the levees. 



Another factor which influences the agricultural value of these 

 lands is the season at which they are liable to be flooded. If the 

 floods come during the early spring the water will subside before 

 the spring planting needs to be undertaken. The damage done 

 can often be repaired. But if the streams rise during midsum- 

 mer when the com or cotton is full gro\\Ti the loss is irreparable. 

 The Mississippi is more liable to early spring floods and summer 

 floods are rare because the periods of high water are commonly 

 due to the melting of the snow at their headwaters. In the 

 Atlantic coast streams the conditions are different. They rise 

 in the southern Appalachians where there is no great accumula- 



