32 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



waters, the former from the Cumberland mountains in Tennessee, the latter 

 bringing the drainage even from Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia 

 and Mississippi, twice crossing the state of Tennessee, and both rivers pouring 

 their floods into the Ohio within a few miles of each other. 



The Wabash and \Yhite rivers covered the land between them, forming a 

 vast sheet of water underneath which lay hundreds of fine farms. 



With all the unwelcome pouring of many rivers emptying into the already 

 swollen Mississippi, that river widened its banks and flooded out over Ar- 

 kansas, forming a river forty miles wide. Through the forests and over the 

 fields the steamboats plied on errands of mercy, as a general outpouring of 

 money and provisions from thousands of generous-hearted citizens sent con- 

 tributions in vast quantities to those in distress, for thousands were homeless, 

 having lost everything by the breaking of the levees and continued rise of the 

 waters. 



The lower Mississippi Valley, from the junction with the Ohio to the delta, 

 is a low, alluvial plain of varying width, the hills approaching the river in but 

 few places. At Columbus, Ky., Memphis, Tenn., Vicksburg and Natchez. 

 Miss., and Baton Rouge, La., are high lands for a very short distance. Except 

 these the broad low lands have been formed from the sediment eroded from 

 mountain, valley and plain many hundreds of miles away. 



Upon each recurring season of high water the river has spread over the 

 low lands, depositing a layer of mud near the banks, thus raising the river and 

 its embankment higher and higher each year, until now, during full tide, the sur- 

 face is many feet above that of the land. 



In order to prevent this annual overflow and enable the planters to occupy 

 the rich lands bordering the river, embankments or levees have been con- 

 structed at great expense along both sides of the Mississippi and also along 

 all streams throughout these low lands. There are few rivers flowing into 

 the Mississippi in its lower course, but there are numerous bayous, tortuous in 

 their passage, which convey the water through swamps, finally reaching the Gulf 

 of Mexico. 



When the river rises in its highest stage the levees become soft and yield- 

 ing and frequently a crevasse occurs under the enormous weight of water, 

 submerging thousands of acres. . 



This relieves the strain from the levees elsewhere and usually lowers 

 the water enough to prevent similar losses farther down the river. 



In 1897 there were 15,800 square miles of this alluvial plain beneath the sea 

 of waters ; 380,000 people were residents of the flooded area ; 39.500 farms were 

 submerged, with 3,800.000 acres of farm land. 



By a systematic re-afforestation of the mountain regions and the planting 

 of trees on the plains at headwaters of these western rivers, and the construc- 

 tion of extensive storage reservoirs to supply water for irrigation, a recurrence of 

 such disastrous floods in the South would be impossible. 



