APPENDIX. VIU 



The floods of this spring (1874) have been so extraordinary as 

 to break the levees of Mississippi and Louisiana, and to devastate 

 these States with that of Arkansas by a most disastrous inunda- 

 tion, involving loss of life, property, stock, homes and improve- 

 ments in one vast ruin, followed by famine and threatening 

 pestilence. 



While the flood height in most of the alluvial basin is not 

 greater than in some previous floods, for example in 1815, 1828, 

 1850, 1862, and 1871, the great extent of population and the bad 

 condition of the levees have given an intensity and breadth to 

 the suffering and devastation, incomparably greater than has ever 

 been experienced on the continent. 



The people, in their utter impotence and poverty, turn with 

 prayers of desperation to the National Legislature for bread to 

 save them from famine, and for the strong national arm and 

 purse to rebuild and take charge of their levees, or the people 

 must perish, and the Delta be remitted to the dominion of the 

 annual floods. 



A quotation from an essay read by the writer before the 

 American Association at Dubuque, in August, 1872, will form a 

 proper closing for this contribution : — 



"The fertility of the soils of the Delta both by analysis and 

 experiment, is of the highest quality ; in fact, it is almost inex- 

 haustible. Accordingly, it produces, in its southern two degrees, 

 the great staples of rice and sugar in abundance and perfection 

 unknown in any other portion of North America. In fact, sugar 

 is cultivated only in the Delta, and south of latitude 3L° 30'. In 

 nearly all portions of the Delta, but more thoroughly in the five 

 degrees north from 31° (north of Red River), cotton grows in 

 the Delta lands in double the quantities of tlie best uplands ; and 

 corn, and sweet and Irish potatoes, in every portion of the Delta, 

 ^row with facility and abundance, and with a minimum of culti- 

 vation. In the northern border the cereals grow and mature to 

 the satisfaction of the agriculturist. The fruits of the tropical 

 and temperate zones — oranges, figs, grapes, apples, and peaches 

 ' — are duly distributed and easily grow, each in its proper locality, 

 •over the Delta ; while pecans, the most valuable of all nuts, grow 

 in wild profusion over the entire alluvial basin. 



" The remarks as to productiveness are applicable to every 

 acre not submerged, and not merely to chosen spots, as upon the 

 uplands adjacent on either side. 



" We may compute then that 22,920,320 acres of actually pro- 

 ductive land are upon this alluvial basin. In this respect it is 

 probably the largest body of like fertility known to geography. 



" The forests of the Delta are remarkable for the largeness of 

 the trees, and the exuberance of foliage and vines. 



" The oaks and the cypress are the leading timber trees, 

 though many others are used. The live oaks in the southern 



(IV) 



