82 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



I have outlined in a general way the character of improve- 

 ments needed to drain cut-over lands. I have indicated the range 

 of cost to construct proper drainage systems. The question 

 whether these lands should be drained resolves itself into the 

 simple business proposition : Will it pay? To answer this ques- 

 tion properly consideration must be given to suitability of the 

 soil to producing crops adapted to the region, transportation 

 facilities, markets, cost of clearing and developing, demand for 

 more agricultural land, and desirability of location for settle- 

 ment. In cases where drainage is undertaken principally with a 

 view to selling the lands rather than to opening them up to cul- 

 tivation by their owners, care must be taken to see that such 

 settlers have sufficient funds to clear and develop the land, plant 

 it, and to provide for their needs until they can realize some- 

 thing from their crops. 



It will be of interest to refer for a moment to some sections 

 where cut-over lands have been drained and see what has fol- 

 lowed drainage. Not so long ago from a landowner in a 200,000- 

 acre tract of low-lying level land in Arkansas we received a 

 letter reading in part as follows : "Many thousand acres of land 

 have gone rapidly into cultivation, with population and produc- 

 tion increasing amazingly. Many hundreds of houses and barns 



„. , „ . have been built per annum for the past several years. Lands that 

 Hiqh Produc- . ,-, r i 1.11 



tivity of were m swamps and timber a few years ago have lately been 



Property producing 75 to 95 bushels of corn per acre and this year $75 to 



Cut-Over $125 worth of cotton per acre; and miles of good roads where 



Lands were swamps and cut-over timber. Certainly our efforts and 



expenditures have been justified beyond all expectation." On 



similar land in Missouri the farmers have reported harvesting 



28 bushels of winter wheat the first year and from 35 to 45 



bushels of corn. A few years ago the hilly and narrow lowlands 



of which I read you a description of conditions were drained. 



Not so long ago a landowner in that section remarked that the 



value of the corn crops harvested the first year after drainage 



was completed was sufficient to pay the entire cost of drainage. 



There is another form of benefit accruing from the drainage 

 of swamp and cut-over land, which, though not tangible or capa- 

 ble of being expressed in dollars and cents, should not be over- 

 looked. I refer to the influence of drainage on the sanitary con- 

 ditions of the community. Not long ago I was inspecting one of 

 the first drainage ditches to be constructed in the Piedmont Sec- 



