The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-17
WEALTH IN BLACK SOIL.

| How the Great Kankakee Marsh in In- l diana was Reclaimed.
 | The largest swamp farm in the world and the most remarkable farm on this side of Holland is in Northern Indiana, within 50 miles of Chicago. It spreads
 out over 32,OO0 acres that 10 years ago were under the wash of the great
 Kankakee and the Iroduois swamps. The owner is B. J. Clifford of Kankakee, who has the distinction not only of hav- ing obtained his sixtieth year without having had his picture taken, but also of being the most extensive farmer in
 the Mississippi Valley south of the
 great wheat growers of the Dakotas.
 He is now negotiating for the pur-
 chase of 22 900 acres adjoining his farm,
 thep roperty of Nelson Morris. the Chi
 cago packer, who uses the land for
 grazing purposes With the addition of
 this traet--the second largest farm In
 Indiana--to his place, Clifford will be
 able to compare his acreage with that
 of farms further north.
 Up to 1890, when Clifford made his
 first purchase, the Kankakee river part
 of the State was one great morass, and
 northern Jasper county in particular
 was a swamp. Only her and there was
 the monotony of the waste broken by
 small knols or islands that furnished
 footing for scrub oaks. About the only inhabitants had been horse thieves
 and other lawbreakers, who found
 place of refuge there. To-day all this
 area of former waste is a garden so
 productive that its owner has refused
 offers of s1oO and even SIPS an acre for
 his holdings that have been freed of water.
 Gifford's attention was first attracted to the swamp by the remark of real estate man of Jasper county, who said that all of the north part of the county was good for nothing except to trade to suckers sight unseen" When Clifford offered S5 an acre for 5000 acres in the very center of the swamp the owners unloaded on him in hurry. People who had holdings near his purchase hurriedly let him know that he could get their land, too--and to their aston- ishment he took it in until he had 32.- 900 acres of sawmp lying In one body and extending from north to south l9 miles, and from east to west from two to five miles. The soil had ben growing rich for centuries through the decay of vegetable matter, and Clifford started to drain it. The dredges that Clifford bought had to be ferried to the islands in the morass, where the bottoms were built. They were then put at work, dig ding-night as well as day-their way out of one marsh into another and then down to the Iroauois river and back
 It was found that it would be useless 10 rely on the Kankakee for drainage, SO the dredges were put at work cut ting through the divide and taking ad- vantage of slight fall of Il feet to the Iroauois river, 20 miles to the south west, Now there are 200 miles of wa terways, some of them from 15 to 20 feet deep and from 20 to 40 feet wide Drains cut the great farm up into patches of from 15 to 30 acres. As the 1itches were made the eXcavated earth was pushed out over the land, dykink and building it up high above the wa ter. When the ground was thus freed, q little at time from the water. the work of reclaiming the soil for cultiva- ton had just begun. The soil was so rich and the vegetation grew so rank | and rapidly that it was as difficult to l it as it had been to get domin- | on over the water. It has been only in l the last few years that any of the | great tract was put under cultivation, | put now the acreage is annually increas- | ng rapidly. Last year there were 1S000 | ,cres under cultivation; this year the | ,rea will run to 20,000 acres and the re- :, naining 12,O00 acres will be under the | blow in another five years.