. The story of corn and the westward migration. ine distance is only about one thousand threehundred miles. No two surveys of the course of theriver made at different periods have recorded thesame length. The measurements sometimes varyas much as two hundred or three hundred wonderful river has been known to cut acrossthe country in a night, shortening its course bythirty miles. It has swept around obstructions andleft its old bed far inland. It has played havoc l62 The Story of Corn with boundary lines—land once in Arkansas is to-day in Mississippi, and vice versa. It has made andu
. The story of corn and the westward migration. ine distance is only about one thousand threehundred miles. No two surveys of the course of theriver made at different periods have recorded thesame length. The measurements sometimes varyas much as two hundred or three hundred wonderful river has been known to cut acrossthe country in a night, shortening its course bythirty miles. It has swept around obstructions andleft its old bed far inland. It has played havoc l62 The Story of Corn with boundary lines—land once in Arkansas is to-day in Mississippi, and vice versa. It has made andunmade towns along its banks. It is said that atown in the state of Mississippi used to be threemil^s below Vicksburg as the river then ran, butto-day it is two miles above Vicksburg as the rivernow runs. It has thrown river towns far inland, andvillages that once lay on its banks and listened tothe shrill whistle of the river steamboats have dis-appeared, and the mighty river flows over theplaces where once the church bells called the people. From Mississippi River Commission, U. S. War Dept. Levee along the Mississippi. To prevent the flooding of the low lands in time of high water the hanks have been strengthened by levees of earth and stone to worship, and the busy traffic of streets markedthe industry of a thriving river town. When the Connecting the Corn Country with the World 163 steamboat came it found here about sixteen thousandmiles of navigable waters, and a steamer plying itsway from the Gulf to the falls of the Missouricovered a distance of over four thousand miles—a distance greater than that from New York toConstantinople. Steamers could work their wayinto the heart of Tennessee or Kentucky, run farinland in all the states north of the Ohio, almosttouch the Canada line, and find their way to thefoothills of the Rocky Mountains. No other sucharea in all the world has received so much fromthe hand of nature. Such is the wonderful valley and such is themighty riv
Size: 1888px × 1323px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidstoryofco, booksubjectcorn
