Agricultural Potential of Selected Areas Within the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (Classic Reprint)

Download or read book Agricultural Potential of Selected Areas Within the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (Classic Reprint) written by W G Eichberger and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-03-19 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Agricultural Potential of Selected Areas Within the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley Although certain parts of the Mississippi River Delta have been under cultivation for more than 200 years, the Delta, as a whole, has great potential for future agricultural development in the Nation. As the need for agricultural products increases over the years, this potential can be developed at a comparatively reasonable cost. Past agricultural development in the Delta has taken place only after a certain measure of flood protection has been provided. The comprehensive flood-protection system on the lower Mississippi River provides a high degree of protection. However, certain development awaits further protection. The Delta is characterized by a preponderance of heavy clay, silty clay, and silt loam soils. The optimum agricultural potential of these soils cannot be realized without the removal of excess surface water. The degree of drainage in the Delta lags behind that of flood protection; thus the key to unlocking the great agricultural potential lies partly in further flood control but to a greater extent in more complete and adequate drainage. Three types of drainage are recognized as essential. First, there must be major drainage canals or outlets. Then there must be intermediate or group-type drainage to connect the individual farms to those major outlets. As a final step there must be drainage systems on individual farms to convey excess water from the fields to the intermediate collection systems and thence into the major outlets. Even though cultivated land may have flood protection it is not unusual to double or triple production by supplementing this protection with adequate drainage. Along with the agricultural potential of the Delta are other equally important potentials that will contribute to our Nation's economy. For instance, it is the best bottom land hardwood-timber producing area in the country. Under proper management, fast-growth high-quality timber can be produced with a high per-acre yield. Even though we have no present demand for an increase in crop production, this is not true of timber such as is grown in that area. Our ever-growing timber requirements make the timber-producing potential of the Delta increasingly valuable. Although timber production in the area at the present time is high, it is only a fraction of what can be achieved under proper management. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.