OCR Text |
Show i I' i .-ran t loll AguiiiKt I I la. j Floods may be sueei'ssfully oiniosod or 1 c-apod. Itail-.vays ainl wa'oti Mads may and must 1 laid on river flood jilains, but the embankments and tres- , ties and hri'lLf-H should bo raised not only above tho latest freshet mark, but : well above tho ureal natural flood mark , found in the plain ilself, and the reeip- j rooal effects of embankment and other titructufes on future fre.-hets Hhould bo cantioti' ly reckoned. Farms may and i u;-llt to be located on f-rtilrt Ixittoitl lands enriched by annual or decennial j overflow; but. tho farmers should ih ! deep for his foundations and build his , BiiperHtmcf tin s stroller and liih. i Uu every ilooil plain of eastern Amer- j ica ho should provide for tho loss of crop and fences oneo i u three, or five, or ten . years; and both common humanity and I economic policy nrgo that dumb beasts , Hhould be iistured and fed on tlio up-! hinds, so that tlio ferlilo river bottoms ; may be devoted to their best use namely, name-ly, the production of plant crops. Cities and towns oic'lit not to 1m! built , on tho flood ridden and miai-mat io low- : lands; yet they havo been in tho pa.-t mid will bo iu tho future, ho the towns- ; man, liko tho fanner, should build hi;,'h I and Btrom,' and hold himself ready to ro- ' inovo Ins dear ones and carry his goods to upper Ktorics. And tho flood ewept ; liotiom lauds of tho American rivers afford a business opportunity, curiously j neglected in tho past, though destined to ho successfully grasped at no distant j day namely, insurance against floods. The great desideratum is general re- i cognition of tho facts which nro deni- j onslrated by tlio observations of thou- 1 Bands and gainsaid by none, though ignored f y multitudes that rivers bear their own flood marks in tho alluvial plains by which they aro skirted, and that men occupy theso plains at their peril. V. .T. Met ho in Forum. j |