52 BULLETIN 272, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
estimates $17 as the average cost per acre of draining permanent 
swamps.! This figure includes public drainage, private drains, and 
clearing the land for cultivation. Where the original surface is coy- 
ered with stumps, the additional expense of clearing cut-over cypress 
land in Louisiana has been found to range from $30 to as high as 
$100 an acre, depending upon the character of growth. This makes 
a total expense ranging from $47 to $117, or an average of $82 per 
acre,for reclamation. Ii the present value of reclaimed swamp lands 
and the demand for them is considered, this expense undoubtedly is 
not justified. 
In large drainage projects plans seldom include the reclamation of 
all the land within the district to be drained. The cost of such work, 
under present economic conditions, would be altogether prchibitive. 
Doubtless in some future period the rise of land values will warrant 
very costly drainage systems. Those cypress lands, which may 
reasonably be expected to remain to a large degree undrained for 
many decades, include (1) sloughs and lagoons in otherwise undu- 
lating swamp se overflowed land, (2) strips between levees and the. 
normal river channel, (3) entire tracts of deep swamps where cypress 
orows in pure stands ne the land is too wet for other species, (4) 
narrow marginal swamps along rivers subject to periods of high 
overflows, and (5) countless small inland ‘“‘ponds” and dead swamps 
in flat, poorly dramed regions. 
VALUE OF RECLAIMED SWAMP LANDS. 
The market value of reclaimed swamp lands is generally from $15 
to $25 net over and above the cost of the drainage and other work. 
An expense of $12 an acre for draining, $30 to $100 for clearing, and an 
initial land value of say $1, plus the operator’s profit of $15 to $25, 
give final values to reclaimed cypress lands rangmg from $60 to 
$140 an acre. This may profitably be compared with the expense of 
reclaiming wet prairie land, which will include approximately $17 
for drainmg and clearing,’ $5 to $15 for the land, and the operator’s 
profit of $15 to $25, or a total of $35 to $60. The latter closely ap- 
proximates current local sale values of dramed lands in good condi- 
tion to produce agricultural crops in the lower Mississippi Valley. 
Close to good markets, values run above $100 an acre, for inten- 
sive use. 
This high value of reclaimed prairie land, over and above the cost 
estimates for an efficient drainage system by conservative engineers, 
allures capital strongly toward utilizing rich swamp for agriculture. 
1U. 8S. Senate Document 443, 60th Cong., Ist sess. Prepared by Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. 
Department of Agriculture. 
2U.8. Department of Agriculture, Bul. 71, Office Experiment Stations (Professional Paper), “The Wet 
Lands of Louisiana and their Drainage.” 
