DRAINAGE OF WET LANDS OF SOUTHERN LOUISIANA. 33 



added to the cost of new rope is a considerable item. The loss of power 

 in the rope drive is unavoidable and the loss of the use of the pump at a 

 critical time due to the breaking of a rope is a serious matter. This pump 

 while adapted to a low lift is not suitable for a varying one. The total lift, to 

 be on the safe side, must be about 1 foot above ordinary high tide, and when 

 the variation of the tide is 2.5 feet with the effective lift only 4.5 feet, as it is 

 in this case, it is apparent that the actual lift of the pump is often nearly twice 

 the effective lift. Again, being made almost entirely of wood, repairs to this 

 style of pump are frequently necessary, and as the parts to be repaired are 

 usually under water the pump must be detached from the foundation and raised 

 before the work can be done. These pumps while low in first cost are very 

 short lived when compared to the cast-iron centrifugal type. Thus, consider- 

 ing the greater rate for depreciation and repairs on this style of pump as com- 

 pared to the cast-iron centrifugal form, it appears that the latter might be 

 preferable on this score alone. 



A reliable pump if placed in this plant could be of considerable less capacity 

 than the present ones and still be of ample size. The heaviest rainfall since 

 the records of pumping have been kept occurred in July, 1910, when 5.58 inches 

 fell in 2 days. A reliable pump with a capacity of 0.75 inch per 24 hours 

 would have taken this water out rapidly enough to have prevented a longer 

 flooding than 12 hours. 



Condition of Land for Cultivation. 



During the growing season of 1909 the front one-third of this tract was prac- 

 tically the only part that was sufficiently well drained to admit of cultivation. 

 These front lands naturally were a little firmer than the portion that originally 

 was a part of Lake Fields. The back portion was fairly well drained for two 

 years previous to the season of 1909, but the land had not become firm enough 

 to allow its cultivation with animal-drawn machinery. The drying out of these 

 muck lands is accompanied by the formation of large cracks that extend to 

 the soft mud below, and it is only after these cracks have been closed that cul- 

 tivation can be done in the ordinary manner. The lateral ditches were all well 

 cleaned and the silt was removed from the reservoir during the early spring of 

 1910. Although the spring of 1910 was unusually dry, all of the lake bed was 

 not solid enough to be cultivated. Early in the spring of 1911 all this land was 

 plowed with a gang of six turning plows drawn by a gasoline traction engine 

 mounted on the apron traction instead of wheels. Corn was planted in this 

 land and it was cultivated in the usual manner, since the one thorough plow- 

 ing had completely filled the holes and cracks. The period necessary to bring 

 the land under complete cultivation was about four years. This period could 

 have been shortened if the drainage had been complete and continuous from 

 the first and the land plowed a year sooner with a traction engine. Corn seems 

 to be the easiest and best crop to grow on these new lands, followed by sugar- 

 cane the second and third years. Excellent yields of all kinds of truck have 

 been grown on this plantation. Cane produces especially well and the tonnage 

 per acre is very much greater than on the older lands along the bayou, exceed- 

 ing their average nearly 50 per cent. No special treatment was given this soil 

 when bringing it under cultivation and it does not appear that any was neces- 

 sary. 



AREA NO. 3, LA FOURCHE PARISH, LA. 



This district (fig. 9) lies about 5 miles south of the village of Raceland and 

 borders on the upper end of Lake Fields, this being the same lake from which 

 a part of area No. 2 was taken. The district contains 940 acres. The surface 

 25102°— Bull. 71—14 5 



