2 BULLETIN 652, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



all parts of the overflowed section since about 1875. It has been carried for- 

 ward as fast as funds could be secured for the work. Second, the former 

 abundance of cheap and well-drained agricultural land in this and other 

 parts of the country made these lands unattractive. Third, , the necessary 

 State laws were not enacted until recently. 



As the above-mentioned obstacles have been removed in a measure, the 

 work of swamp-land drainage is attracting- serious and widespread attention. 

 The most active field of drainage operations at present is in the southern 

 portion of the State, and it is there that the Department of Agriculture has 

 been carrying on drainage investigations for about eleven years. The purpose 

 of this work has been: (1) To study the soil, climate, and other natural 

 conditions with special reference to the drainage problems encountered and 

 the value of the land for agricultural purposes when successfully drained. 

 (2) To collect such technical data and to examine such details of present 

 practice as will afford information of value to landowners, and especially to 

 engineers interested in the reclamation of such lands. (3) To disseminate 

 the results of the investigations and to encourage land drainage by emphasiz- 

 ing the benefits to be derived from bringing such lands under cultivation. 



Reports of results obtained have been made at frequent intervals, and par- 

 tial reports have been published as often as seemed advisable. It is the 

 purpose in this bulletin to include all salient features of the information so 

 far published and to give also the results of later investigations. Where 

 direct quotations from earlier publications are made, credit is given, but 

 much of the material contained in the earlier publications and reports is so 

 interwoven with later and more complete information that no specific men- 

 tion is made of its source. The scope of this bulletin is as follows : 



First, a description of general conditions in this section of the State, of 

 such a nature and in such detail that persons unfamiliar with this or similar 

 sections of the country will be able to form a fairly accurate idea of the nature 

 of the problems encountered in the successful drainage and clutivation of these 

 swamp lands. 



Second, the results of detailed examinations of four drainage districts, re- 

 claimed or in process of reclamation, and a summary of such results. 



Third, a consideration of the problems involved in land drainage by means 

 of pumps in Louisiana. This discus ught be considered as a continuation 



of another bulletin published by tl lealing with pumping in" the upper 



Mississippi River Valley. 1 



LOCATION AND GENi L L CONDITIONS. 



As shown by figure 1. the area under consideration lies on the immediate 

 Gulf coast. A range of hills running eastward from Baton Rouge, the State 

 capital, to Lake Pontchartrain, forms, with the lake, the northern boundary 

 of the portion lying east of the Mississippi River. Most of the land in this 

 area is from 1 to 3 feet above sea level, with a very small percentage lying 

 along the river and the larger bayous having an elevation of from 4 to 15 

 feet. To the westward, between the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya, the land 

 rises gradually from sea level along the Gulf to an elevation of perhaps 15 

 or 20 feet along a line drawn from Baton Rouge to Lafayette, except in the 

 immediate vicinity of the Atchafalaya River, where it is very little above sea 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Office Public Roads and Rural Engineering, Bulletin 304. 

 Note. — This revision of Department Bulletin 71 contains information of value to land- 

 owners, engineers, and others interested in drainage by pumping, especially of the wet 

 prairies along the Gulf coast. 



