It has thus been brought about that the effort to improve the navigation of the river for the general welfare, has resulted in such great changes in the geography of the locality, that a large district has been reclaimed for agricultural purposes. The alluvial valley of the Mississippi river has an area of thirty thousand square miles, and is naturally divided into four great basins that have been designated the St. Francis, Yazoo, Tensas and Atchafalaya. Two of these basins are now fairly protected from the overflows of the Mississippi, by the levees that have been constructed, or repaired, incidental to the work of the Commission, viz: the Yazoo basin extending from below Memphis to the mouth of the Yazoo river; and the Tensas basin from the high land south of the Arkansas river to the mouth of the Red river; and the Atchafalaya basin, from the Red river to the gulf, has been protected on the Mississippi fronts. These three basins have an aggregate area of nearly twenty thousand square miles that is now reasonably secure from inundation. Measures have also been instituted by the State authorities looking to the reclamation of the St. Francis basin; and the work is half accomplished on the White river section.
Nearly the whole of this valley was under protection thirty years ago, but the disasters of the late civil war, and subsequent inability of the people to repair the damaged levees, resulted in the practical abandonment of many sections, and it was not until about ten or twelve years ago that the protective works again presented an appearance of continuity. The supposed security, however, was of short duration, as the great floods of 1882 overtopped the works in more than one hundred and forty places, causing such widespread destruction that cultivation of the soil was rendered impossible over large districts. The floods of succeeding years but added to the misfortunes of the valley, and land values became so depreciated that sales were impracticable, taxes could not be collected, and there was a general feeling that square miles of fertile land must be given over to the destructive agencies of the great river that had made it.
It was while suffering under this distressing situation that the work of the Mississippi River Commission was brought forward as a possible means of salvation. With a recuperative power that seems almost marvelous, the people have contributed of their labor and their means, until now this great area of nearly twenty thousand square miles has been once more reclaimed, and seems to have entered upon an era of prosperity that will eclipse the prophecies of even the most sanguine. It is believed that the levees that have now been constructed will prove reasonably secure. They have been built for a double purpose; and the proportion of the expense incurred by the general government, about one-third, under the direction of the Commission, has insured a supervision and inspection by competent engineers such as was not exercised in the earlier history of such works on the river.