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The rural population of Desha County has increased in percentage as much as that of any other county in the State from 1930 to 1940, and most of this increase has been in the section of the county that has the highest elevation and has the best drainage. The increase in the amount of cropland has been in proportion to the increase in population. In 1930 the rural population was 18,326, and in 1940 23,497. This is 29.2 percent increase. Practically all of the high land of the county is in cultivation, and many acres of the land that is drowned out in wet years is also in crops. Without further drainage, however, it will be hard for farmers to produce a satisfactory income from this land because crop failure will occur in wet years and small farmers will not be able to carry on under existing conditions. According to the 1930 census the total acres of cropland in Desha County was 71,529, and at the present time 152,000 acres are in cultivation. Practically all of the land has been cleared that is not too hazardous for crop production on account of poor drainage. Without proper drainage some of the land that has been cleared will be abandoned. Much of it could not be worked in 1945 due to the flood condition.

Desha County has approximately 125,000 acres of land to be cleared. This is good fertile land and land that young men can build homes on and pay for these homes by crops produced. If this 125,000 acres of land is drained this would make a place for 1,500 additional farm families that could move into the county and have enough land to farm with units large enough to produce high standards of living.

The farm owners of Desha County are willing and anxious to construct the lateral ditches leading into the main arteries. In 1942, 202 miles of lateral ditches were constructed by the landowners. These ditches have not been effective because the main arteries would not take the water away rapidly enough. These main arteries are too small, they have inadequate outlets and the bayous are filled_with debris. The lack of drainage is the only thing that is keeping Desha County from being developed.

STATEMENT OF HON. HUGH L. WILLIAMS, COUNTY JUDGE, DESHA COUNTY, ARK.

Mr. WILLIAMS. I have been county judge of Desha County for over 10 years. During that time it has been my obligation to construct, repair, and drain the county roads.

In a very large portion of the county, adjacent to the main canals, the lack of drainage has made our county roads impassable for as much as 5 months in some years. Large sections of the county roads are completely covered with water, following excessive rains, because of the fact the main outlets for the storm waters are insufficient to allow the roads to be drained. The county has lost large sums of money where these county roads have been graveled, because the roadbed has become completely saturated, and any traffic on the road at that time causes the gravel to sink and the road to be destroyed.

Many of our bridges are inundated during excessive wet spells. No great losses are sustained, by wet weather, excepting those periods when the canals are overtaxed.

Until the outlets of the main drainage canals have been enlarged, it will be impossible to maintain a system of roads within the affected

areas. If these canals were enlarged so that the storm waters would get away, this county would soon develop a system of roads, adequate for the use of all of the farmers in the county.

The lack of roads causes many people who have moved into the county to become discouraged and move away. Also, the lack of roads causes gret damage in transporting labor to the farms, and, likewise, the transporting of crops and the like.

During the past 2 years, on account of the increased burden that has been placed upon our inadequate drainage system, the matter of building and maintaining roads has become steadily worse.

STATEMENT OF HOWARD L. CLAYTON, SHERIFF, DESHA
COUNTY, ARK.

Mr. CLAYTON. My name is Howard L. Clayton. I reside at Arkansas City, Ark. I am now, and have been for several years, the sheriff and collector for Desha County. I own 2,000 acres of farm lands, most of which lie along ditch 81 of the Cypress Creek drainage district.

I raise cotton, corn, oats, and hay crops. Since I have cleared my lands the drainage outlets for Cypress Creek floodwaters have become so silted up that I suffer great losses each year. The Cypress Creek drainage system is inadequate to handle the floodwaters during the early farming season of each year. If the drainage conditions were improved, the greater portion of this county would soon be put into cultivation, as the lands have demonstrated that cotton, corn, hay, oats, and the like can be produced in great abundance.

All of the lands in the eastern part of this county have practically the same soil chemistry, so I am told by soil chemists. Further development of farm lands will be greatly hindered until the drainage outlets have been completed.

In my official capacity I am required to visit all of the communities in this county, and I find that roads in many places have become impassable and all of the roads in this county suffer great loss for lack of drainage. The lands cannot be cultivated with farm machinery successfully because the lands remain wet for such a long period that very few farmers are able to do all of their farming by machinery.

Our State is undertaking to consolidate school districts so that our educational system may be improved. We have so many small districts that it is found to be a waste of money to maintain these small districts. This county cannot meet the State requirements until roads have been built so that the school children can be transported by busses. The lack of drainage makes the construction of these roads impossible.

I wish to call your attention to another factor that has been very damaging to the agricultural lands in the southeast portion of this county; that is, the War Relocation Authority constructed drainage canals emptying into ditch 81, and since ditch 81 does not have a sufficient outlet the lands south of the War Relocation Authority center are damaged by reason of the construction of these canals. These canals were dug in the vicinity of Rohwer, Ark. Within the past 2 years and since the completion of the War Relocation Authority drainage ditches, ditch 81 overflows 500 acres of my cultivated lands. In 1944 I lost 200 acres of oats and 200 acres of hay. In 1945 I lost 125 acres of oats and 25 bales of cotton from the overflow of ditch 81.

The local people cannot dig sufficient canals to take care of the storm water because there are not sufficient outlets for the water after it has been carried to the Chicot County line, and in turn Chicot County cannot improve its condition until all of the drainage systems have been completed.

Desha County drainage canals have been greatly damaged by the floods, and we are now trying to pay the bonded indebtedness, though the works for which this money was expended have been greatly damaged.

STATEMENT OF G. C. JOHNSTON, A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE DERMOTT DRAINAGE DISTRICT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS DRAINAGE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION

Mr. JOHNSTON. My name is G. C. Johnston. I live at Dermott, Chicot County, Ark. My business is banking. I am also a member of the board of commissioners of the Dermott drainage district and am the vice president of the Southeastern Arkansas Drainage Protective Association. I am appearing before this committee in the interest of the project approved by the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, known as the Bayou Macon and Boueff River Basin drainage and flood control project of southeast Arkansas.

The purpose of this project is to provide outlets for a system of natural streams and drainage canals for an area embracing that part of southeast Arkansas south and west of the Arkansas and Mississippi River levee system, east of Bayou Bartholomew, from near the Jefferson-Lincoln County line to the Arkansas-Louisiana State line. This watershed consists of 1,350 square miles in Chicot, Desha, Ashley, Drew, Lincoln, and Jefferson Counties. The population of the area, according to the 1940 census, was 66,000 persons. Of the total area approximately 1,300 square miles (823,000 acres) are included in organized drainage districts.

Drainage improvements in this area were started in the upper part of the watershed in 1907 and have been continued intermittently until the present date. The Drainage Census of the Bureau of the Census, of 1940, indicated that there were a total of 478,894 acres of improved land and 318.274 acres of unimproved land lying within this basin. Practically all of Desha and Chicot Counties south of the Arkansas River are involved in this basin.

This is highly fertile Mississippi River alluvial soil and when adequately drained the land has as high productive capacity as any within the Mississippi River embayment. The area has a railroad shop and classification yard at McGehee and numerous cotton gins and small industries scattered throughout; however, it is predominately an agricultural section with cotton as a major crop.

Without going into a great deal of detail with respect to the history of the efforts of local people to obtain flood control and drainage, it is important to emphasize a few of the facts in this regard. The Mississippi and Arkansas River levees were originally constructed by the southeast Arkansas levee district with some participation by the War Department prior to the passage of the Flood Control Act of May 1928.

Local interests had expended a total of $3,000,000 in their effort to complete the levee systems when the Federal Government took full charge and responsibility for the systems.

The Federal Government, in its dealing with the local interests, represented by the southeast Arkansas levee district, required the local people to provide rigths-of-way and diversion canals at their own expense. In addition to participation on the part of local people in the cost of the levee system, all of the cost of drainage heretofore has been paid for by the local people. A total of more than $5,300,000 has been spent for the present drainage system. In addition to costs for drainage, many millions of dollars have been expended by local people in the construction of highways, local roads, and improvements to the land.

One situation which is almost unique in the annuals of flood control was the effect the Jadwin plan of the War Department had on this particular area. The Jadwin plan was prepared by the Army engineers immediately following the passage in 1928 of the Flood Control Act and it provided that a floodway for the relief of the Mississippi River should be constructed from a point near Arkansas City to the Arkansas-Louisiana State line and thence through northern Louisiana. This floodway as proposed provided for a fuse-plug levee of lower height and smaller section than the standard levee design for the west side of the Mississippi River. This plan was later modified, first as the Bouef River floodway and later as the Eudora floodway, and was finally abandoned by the War Department in 1941-Public Law 228, Seventy-seventh Congress. Immediately after passage of this act the Army engineers promptly began to work on building up the fuse-plug section of the levee to the same grade and section as previously adopted for the west bank of the Mississippi River.

There existed, therefore, from the year 1928 to the year 1941, inclusive, a threat of the operation of one or the other of these floodways. During that entire period, the Congress failed to make any provision for the payment of flowage rights or otherwise compensate the landowners for the damage resulting from the designation of this area as a floodway. Therefore, a vast acreage of land was under imminent. threat of flood and no landowner could obtain a fair value for his land, nor could he afford to make improvements which would be damaged in case the Government determined to use either of these established floodways.

During these 15 years, while the landowners and citizens of the area were subjected to the hezard of having a vast volume of water deliberately turned on to their property by the United States Government for the relief of the rest of the people living in the lower Mississippi flood plain, there was no opportunity or hope of building up the economy of this entire region. When the floodway project was abandoned and the fuse-plug levee was closed, World War II had begun and for the past 4 years building activities have been reduced to a minimum. Even so, several hundred miles of rural electrification lines have been installed during the past 2 or 3 years, much new land has been put into productive use, and the entire economy of the area is greatly improved.

The project which you have before you for consideration is a key to further development of this fertile section of Arkansas. Without the improvement to major drainage outlets, which this project would

provide, the people are unable to adequately drain their lands by the construction of lateral canals and farm ditches. In this regard, I speak as a member of the board of commissioners of the Dermott drainage district, which contains 73,740 acres, or about 8 percent of the land in the basin. This district in western Chicot County has expended a total of $190,000 in an effort to drain the lands of the district. There is no proper outlet for the canals which have been constructed and there is no incentive for the people to continue drainage improvements in the district. With my knowledge of the rest of the southeast Arkansas area, I believe that this statement will apply relatively to the lands of all the other districts with which I am less intimately acquainted.

It is my belief, as a banker and one who knows the attitude of the people of this area, that our people will spend between seventy-five and one hundred million dollars within from 5 to 10 years following the completion of improvement which are recommended in the Chief Engineer's report on Bayou Macon and Bouef River. These expenditures would be for State and local roads; continued extension of rural electrification lines; new homes and farm improvements; clearing and putting into production approximately 320,000 acres of land; new farm equipment; new and enlarged school buildings and hospitals; approximately five airports; improvements to the present and new service establishments and retail stores; and the construction of new county courthouses, city halls, libraries, fire stations, and so forth. The project under consideration is a key to the developments which I mention above and, in my opinion, the economy will be sufficiently improved that the added income tax from the people of the district for the first few years after completion would be more than sufficient to pay the Government in full for the estimated cost of this project. May I thank you gentlemen for your kind and sympathetic attention.

STATEMENT OF G. A. BROCK, COMMISSIONER, DRAINAGE
DISTRICT NO. 4, DESHA COUNTY, ARK.

Mr. BROCK. This drainage district was organized under the general drainage laws of Arkansas, by order of the Desha County Court, in 1911. The territory of said district embraces all of Desha County which lies west of Crooked Bayou, approximately 24,000 acres. About 48 percent of said land is in cultivation. Crooked Bayou, which is the eastern boundary of the district, is also the western boundary of Cypress Creek drainage district. The district is locally known as the Black Pond district.

The flat lowlands extend to within a quarter of a mile of Crooked Bayou on the east and Bayou Bartholomew on the west, with higher land between Black Pond slough and Big Bayou slough. The general elevation is from 6 to 10 feet below the high banks of these bayous. The average fall of the land is to the south. The natural drainage channels were Big Bayou slough in the western part and Black Pond slough in the eastern part, and ditches were constructed along the course of each of these sloughs, according to plans laid out and projected by the drainage engineers of the United States Department of Agriculture, and designated on the map thereof as Black Pond drainage district. The cost of this drainage plan to the landowners amounted to approximately $296,500.

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