BULLETIN 



Contribution from Office of Experiment Stations, A. C. True, Director. 

 July 13, 1914. 



(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 



REPORT UPON THE BLACK AND BOGGY SWAMPS DRAINAGE 



DISTRICT, HAMPTON AND JASPER COUNTIES, S. C. 



By F. G. Eason, Drainage Engineer. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



While in some respects all the swamp lands of the Atlantic Coastal 

 Plain are alike, the problems to be met in draining the lands differ 

 somewhat from one section to another. In Georgia and the Caro- 

 linas are many areas that have little slope as a whole, but in detail 

 are somewhat roiling. From the higher parts, scattered among the 

 flat open woodlands and the timbered bays and branches in which 

 water stands the greater part of the year, the timber has been cleared 

 and small farms have been established. The watercourses, which are 

 broad, shallow,, winding depressions, with no marked channel, are 

 usually filled with growing timber and thick underbrush. 



The topographical conditions require that these lands be drained 

 in units of considerable size, necessitating the cooperation of many 

 landowners. In order that a few owners may not prevent a greater 

 number from reclaiming their wet lands, when the few can not be 

 excluded from the district to be formed, most States have passed 

 general laws providing for the organization of drainage districts and 

 an equitable distribution of the cost. In accordance with such a 

 statute enacted in 191 1 by the Legislature of South Carolina, the Black 

 and Boggy Swamps drainage district was organized in March, 1912. 



Because the Black and Boggy Swamps drainage district is in many 

 respects typical of other areas in the same and bordering States, and 

 because it is the first district organized under the above law, and as 

 the landowners are naturally cautious about beginning an unfamiliar 

 kind of undertaking, Drainage Investigations of the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations, United States Department of Agriculture, at the 

 request of the landowners and in cooperation with them, made a 



Note.— This paper is intended for engineers and others interested in drainage enterprises in regions 

 where the conditions are similar to those here described; it is suitable for distribution in the South Atlantic 

 States. 



45582°— Bull. 114—14 1 



