The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-08-14

VclODmcHt, WulCu ihSiuiiJ NcNS' N' - 5"~N
Judge estimated-a little extravagantly, per-
haps-that there was half bushel berries on
the BUSH The Snyder is not as large berry
as the Lawton or Kittatinny, but Its abundant
yield, It's hardness, fine flavor and earliness
give it strong claim to popular favor
what Thing Has Done for 8OO-Aore Farm
In Livingston County.
| BARTHOLLY HOME, NEAR DWIGHT, ILL.,, Ju.
| ly 12.-It will pay any man who owns forty
acres of land in illinois ~ 60 and see what
have seen to-day. One mile west Of Fsirbury,
| in Livingston county, illinois, lie 903 acres
of land, al IN one body. This tract has q:
ways been known a. the Marsh Farm" and
was not only Marsh BY nsme but was marsh
by nature. In 1870 This property came under
the control Of Mr.. John J. Taylor, gentie.
man Of progressive ideas upon farming. ana
will show. He resolved 1t once that he would
"wipe out" the swamp, and cause icsponds to
produce corn and oats instead Of cat-tails and
Wild willows. Riding over II - ] have, and
carefully noting the Obstacles which Mr.. Toy.
| los has had to overcome, and looking d II 10
day with . magnificent crop Of corn nd oaes
growing upon Il, am free TO pronounce 1t
the most magnificent agricultural sight that
can be seen IN Illinois. During the past
spring and present summer, the rams and
foods have fallen upon Livingston county 70
such an extent that IL has been cared that four
crops would be but email. Even now corn
has suffered in low places TO such . degree
that we do not, even under the most favorable
how thoroughly Mr.Taylor had tile.drained this
whole tract Of land, and to what severe tests 1t
had been subjected to this season, accepted
an invitation from my friend Mr. Bronson
Murray, OF New York City, 10 drive over and
see the condition of the crops and the land.
1t is not out of place in this connection to
state that Mr.. Murray is the owner OF very
large tract of land in Odell IN this county,
and is now, with the assistance of his son, MIR.
Archibald Murray, experimenting the tile
drainage of his whole farm. After pleasant
drive over the country, and carefully observ.
ing the destruction of the crops for the want
of what believe no well-regulated farm can
afford to be without, we reached Fairbury
The first field of the Marsh farm we came to
contained forty-fve acres all of oats, nearly ripe
and far ahead of any similar crop have seen be-
fore. The whole field IS even as barn.doo- and
will no doubt yield seventy-five bushels to the
acre The beauty of the field is that there are nc
bad spots in it. All the ponds have been
!, 'dralned out, and the crop IS simply perfect
!. We now came to q corD.feld. In the very
center of it was formerly an ice-pond, which
had been so thoroughly subdued that corn Is
now growing upon 1t. The corn in this whole
field was so high that we were hardly able to
drive through it without breaking down the
rows. But driving through another field we
came to piece of corn which had been put IN
early and stood over six feet high, and was all
tasseling out We spent fully half a day driv-
ing over these beautiful fields, filled with
wealth, and bringing peace, happiness and
plenty to the owners and all connected with it.
/ ought to say here that this land is all rented
out to tenants. Mr. Taylor stated one fact
which ought to go down to pOsterity through
the columns of the Chicago Tribune, and that
is this: "Under the present system OF tile
drainage upon tract of land like THIS, the
tenants all work with a will; and when they
put crop in the ground IN the spring they
expect to gather in the fall" And he added
!, MY tenants all work as if they owned the
land themselves" The first move MIR. Taylor
made in order to transform this swamp into {
productive farm was to dig an open ditch
about six feet deep for an outlet Open ditch
es Mr.. Taylor would not have, except for al
outlet. 81 would rather the water woull
sweep over the surface of the land, and have
8 my fields all drained by the tiles. There" sale
r he, sis all that is left Of an open ditch" Ant
looking in the direction IN which he calleC
l my attention, l saw eight rows of corn grow
I ing. There" said he, was an open ditct
g once The ditch itself took up the room o
t two rows of corn, and lost three more row
9 of corn on each side of it. So l put down il
, the bottom of 1t good eight-inch tile ant
' filled the whole thing up. There will be nj
more open bitches on this farm as long as
r have anything to say about it. We lose also
great deal of the richness of the soil by thu
heavy wastes during seasons like the present
r and in the end it costs more to keep open ditch
D es free and clean than IL does to tile them ant
T. they are always detriment to farm in cutting
r it up into all sorts of shapes" In 1876, before
Y the Marsh farm was tiled, Mr.. Taylor gath
0 cred 1900 bushels of corn. "1n 1871" sale
y he, latter / had commenced the use of tile
J, raised 5000 bushels of corn. In 1878 still
4 kept on with my thing, and that year Their
t was gathered q 900 bushels of corn. In 1871
t had not finished my work, but the farm tina
;, season produced 25,500 bushels OF corn. an
/. not yet done as there are one or two place
h that need a little doctorlng" "And what
d the prospect for this season? ?" asked. swell
you are as able to Judge of its prospective yiel
as am. | think, however, it IS very safe t
!, put the Weld of the $50 acres at 80 600 bushels
Il The cost of this work has been about $4,000
In other words, Mr.. Taylor has spent abou
l. $3.50 per acre upon the whole tract. OF course
y upon some of the land a great deal more ha
V been expended. For example he said: "Yo
1t see that pond?" No, we do not" "Wel
G you see the bottom of it. Last summer coul
/; swim horse there. spent over $50 an acr