APRIL 2024 25 Matches fertilizer type to crop needs. RIGHT SOURCE Keeps nutrients where crops can use them. RIGHT PLACE Matches amount of fertilizer to crop needs. RIGHT RATE Makes nutrients available when crops need them. RIGHT TIME P.O. Box 510 | 804 Highway 15 West | Northwood, ND 58267 (701) 587-6010 | Fax (701) 587-6013 email: northwoodlab@agvise.com | website: www.agvise.com P.O. Box 187 | 902 13th Street North | Benson, MN 56215 (320) 843-4109 | Fax (320) 843-2074 email: bensonlab@agvise.com | website: www.agvise.com Canada Delivery: 380 Kimberly Rd. | Winkler, MB R6W 0H7 river bottom was at least 12 feet down to allow for safe passage. Twelve feet is equal to two fathoms. One fathom is measured as the length of a man’s arms spread wide, which was approximately six feet. Twain is an old way of saying “number two.” So, “mark twain,” as uttered by the leadman to state the river’s depth, meant “mark two,” as in marking two fathoms. For the author penning riverboat fantasy, Samuel Clemons could hardly be steered wrong by using Mark Twain as his pseudonym. And now you know. In 2023, low water levels along certain parts of the Mississippi River caused trouble for the larger sailing vessels. including those carrying crops destined for global markets. Bottlenecks occurred as traffic backed up when large ships slowed down to carefully pass the river at Memphis, Tennessee, through Vicksburg, Mississippi, and down into Louisianna. The only way to resolve the situation was to follow an old baseball adage: “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,” a popular saying from the 1948 baseball season. That year’s Boston Braves team (later the Milwaukee Braves and now the Atlanta Braves) only had two good pitchers, so success hinged on getting rainouts after their best pitchers, Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain, pitched. Rain is what the Mississippi River needs, as do all of the other water sources discussed in the article. As noted many times, a lack of water depth is a huge factor in moving shipping vessels up and down waterways such as the Mississippi River. What would help is rain. A lot of rain. Except that sometimes too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. When water levels are too high, waterways have their own set of problems—problems that play even greater havoc with river traffic than when they’re too shallow—mostly because high water levels happen more frequently. Research scientists examined the changing levels of water along The Big Muddy from 1963 to 2020, looking at how it affected commercial shipping. Low water in the shipping channel did indeed sometimes strand traffic in sections of the river. However, they found that high water levels forced operators to close locks and restrict shipping capacity, reflecting more difficult conditions for tugs pushing massive collections of river barges. Regarding media coverage, there’s nothing better than photographic evidence of people walking across low levels of the river or seeing watercraft stranded high and dry where a year ago it was being used to traverse the waterway. Despite the lack of social media impact via tell-all photography, the research scientists discovered that high-water level incidents had significantly more impact, particularly on sections of the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, Missouri. Due to imposed shipping restrictions that happen each year, the researchers determined that the upper Mississippi lost about 24 good days’ worth of shipping on an average annual basis. Between 2015 and 2019, the river saw some 400 million tons (406,418,763,520 kilograms) of goods move upon it, with 500 million tons (508,023,454,400 kg) each in 2017 and 2018. Although slower than movement by truck, an average-sized 15-barge tow vessel carries as much cargo as 1,050 53-foot semi-trailers. To safely move ships, the federal authorities looking after the Mississippi River maintain a nine-foot (2.7432 metres) deep shipping channel from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, north to Minneapolis, Minnesota. For ocean-going vessels, 45-foot (13.716 meters)
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