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. What prevents their being cleared up and put into cultivation? --A. Simply the overflow. Q. Have they ever been cleared as yet? --A. A great portion of them; and now destroyed because the levee system is not complete. On these lands all the negro labor which is not found profitable on the poorer lands in the older States, could be made extremely profitable, not only to the proprietors of the lands, but to the laborers themselves. Q. Do you think it would be within limit to say that one half of the alluvial plantation lands, such as you have described in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, is now practically destroyed by reason of this overflow occasioned by the destruction of the levee system? --A. Yes, sir. Q. At least one half? --A. At least one half of that which has been in cultivation, and which can be brought into cultivation.