1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



231 



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IRRIGATION WELLS NEAR JENNINGS, LOUISIANA. 



to thirty feet above the surface waters 

 of the streams and bayous. Through- 

 out the prairie region are numerous 

 ridges slightly higher than the rest 

 of the land. It is upon these ridges 

 that the canals are built by throwing up 

 parallel levees from the outside, making 

 what might be termed an overland 

 canal, instead of cutting below the sur- 

 face. Pumping plants at the heads of 

 the canals lift the water from the stream 

 into the main canals, whence it is car- 

 ried by gravity to the point of diversion 

 on the land. On some of the large 

 canals more than one pumping plant is 

 frequently required, owing to the neces- 

 sity of several lifts to get the water into 

 the canal. 



The prairies are underlaid at depths 

 varying from one hundred to four hun- 

 dred feet with a water-bearing gravel, 

 which, when tapped, furnishes a large 

 supply through flowing wells or wells 

 in which the water rises to within a few 

 feet of the surface. 



The advantages of the coastal prairies 

 for rice growing over the other regions 

 in which this crop is cultivated, are nu- 

 merous and readily apparent, and since 

 the introduction of modern methods and 

 machinery in southwestern Louisiana 

 the growth of the industry has been 

 phenomenal. 



The Atlantic Coast planter works at 

 a great disadvantage in that his plan- 

 tation is virtually a swamp reclaimed by 

 strong dikes and levees from the annual 

 floods and from frequent high tides. 

 The annual cost of protecting his fields 

 and repairing breaks in levees is exces- 

 sive. His rice fields were originally 

 covered with dense forests, to clear 

 which entailed great labor and expense. 

 Owing to the moist character of the 

 soil, his crop must be gathered by hand 

 and carried to higher land to be threshed 

 and cleaned. Plowing and planting for 

 the same reason are slow and tedious. 



In the prairie region the methods of 

 plowing, planting, and harvesting are 



