Improvement of Land by Silting 265 



laden with silt which they are carrying out to sea in 

 great volumes, thus robbing the Piedmont country at 

 a fearful rate, through lack of sufficient care, of its 

 most fertile soil, and transporting it directly through 

 the fields to which it should be applied and upon 

 which it could readily be led to great advantage. 



On the sea coasts of these three states, and par- 

 ticularly in South Carolina, there lie those extensive 

 and once wonderfully productive rice fields upon which 

 so much labor and capital have been spent, but which 

 are now largely abandoned, since the war of the re- 

 bellion, for the lack of sufficient energy to bring the 

 needed capital to the region. 



Here are opportunities for capital to find splendid 

 permanent investment at good rates of interest, to 

 reclaim the vast rice fields now fast falling into ruin, 

 and to apply the methods of warping to these and 

 other lands until they become what they may certainly 

 readily be made, both thoroughly healthful and the 

 richest of fields, adapted to a wide diversity of pro- 

 ductions. The opportunities for warping are better 

 nowhere in the world, and there must certainly be a 

 great future awaiting intelligence, energy and capital 

 here to work out the needed improvements. 



ALKALI WATERS NOT SUITABLE FOR IRRIGATION 



In many portions of the world, and oftenest in 

 arid and semi -arid regions, the waters of some 

 streams and wells, and particularly those of lakes, 

 are too heavily charged with the salts of sodium 



