KECLAIMING OVERFLOWED LANDS IN MISSISSIPPI. 81 
FLOODWAYS. 
In floodways all trees and underbrush should be cut and removed 
and all drift disposed of; stumps should be cut level with the ground. 
The heights of the levees have been computed upon a basis which 
requires that everything that will seriously impede the flow of water 
shall be removed from the floodway, the latter including the river 
channel itself; the widths to be cleared are given in Appendix II. 
It is recommended that a separate organization be formed to clear 
the entire river floodway, since, to be effective, this must be cleared 
through the length of the levee improvements. It is not believed 
that the clearing can be advantageously handled by the separate 
levee districts, working independently. To clear this floodway, the 
entire valley between the lower end of district No. 1 and Cox Ferry 
should be organized into one drainage district. The cost of the 
work should be assessed, according to the benefits to result, to aU of 
the land that at present is subject to overflow, excepting that within 
the floodway itself. The floodway should be cleared to a point 2 
miles below Cox Ferry in order to prevent the increase of flood height 
at the Ferry that otherwise would result from the more rapid dis- 
charge of the upper river. 
SEDIMENTATION AREAS. 
The smaller streams and ravines which enter the valley from the 
surrounding hills usually carry a large amount of sediment and 
drift, which being deposited is continually filling up the lands where 
the streams enter the bottoms. For this reason many of these 
smaller streams have not estabhshed channels for themselves, but 
have filled up and spread over the bottom. If ditches are con- 
structed to connect these small streams with the main 'drainage 
channels, the same process of sedimentation wiU continue and the 
ditches wall soon become filled. 
To overcome this diJ0S.culty in the ditches that are to be constructed, 
it wiU be necessary to provide sedimentation areas, each bounded by a 
levee on the lower or downstream side that wiU serve to impound the 
water and decrease its velocity, thus causing the suspended matter 
to be deposited. In this manner the excess sediment and drift can 
be confined to a limited area and damage to ditches prevented. 
When an area has become filled to such a height that storage is 
no longer possible, a new levee can be constructed a little farther 
upstream or downstream; thus a new sedimentation area is formed, 
leaving the old one, filled with fertile soil, available for cultivation. 
These areas are of the utmost importance in the reclamation of a 
river valley of the character of that of the Big Black, and as they make 
it possible for the farmer to retain the most fertile soil on his farm, 
they should be constructed by him regardless of whether the larger 
