.

Q. Has this increased drainage from the Atchafalaya
resulted in any injury to the navigation of the river as far
north?
--A. Not as yet; but if it is not stopped--the commission
realize the fact I am now telling you--if it is not checked,
the whole Mississippi River will naturally turn through the
Atchafalaya, because the fall is so much greater.

Q. How do they propose to check it?
--A. That is a matter the commission and scientific
engineers would have to decide.

Q. Can they block it at the outlet of the Red River?
--A. They propose to check it principally by stopping the
water from the Mississippi River that goes into the Red
River. There would in that way be an enormous quantity of
water kept out of Red River. That would be one method. What
the engineers would consider sufficient or necessary to be
done, of course I would not venture to express an opinion
upon.

Q. What danger is there to the large mass of capital
invested in these alluvial lands, unless something is done
to prevent the overflows of which you speak?
--A. The lands that are now liable to overflow are almost
entirely abandoned.

Q. To how large an extent are they now abandoned?
--A. Taking in the whole of Mississippi Valley proper, from
Memphis down.

Q. Has there been any computation or reasonable estimate
that you know of the value of those lands affected by the
overflow?
--A. I have never heard of it; but I will say that those
lands which are liable to overflow now, if brought into
cultivation, are just as valuable as any we are cultivating;
probably more so, because they have the alluvial deposits
upon them. There is a deposit there from 3 to 4 inches.

Q. You have no idea of the extent of those lands?
--A. I cannot give you the proportion. I will simply say it
is a very large proportion.

Q. A third, or a half, or a quarter?
--A. More than a half. I saw it estimated some time ago, at
least I will give it as a statement published in the
_Planters' Journal_, published in Vicksburgh, that there are
thirteen counties on the Mississippi River which, if all
cleared up and put into cultivation, are capable of
producing the entire cotton crop of the United States, and I
have heard the question discussed.

Q