Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-09-18
BLACK SOIL BETTER THAN COLI
Indiana Man Holds That Theory, and
HAS Made Himself Rich.

mas mace 7lmSelr RICh.
New York Sun.-The larees
swamp farm in the world and lnt
most remarkable farm on this side q
Holland is in northern Indiana. VII
in so miles Of Chicago. 1t spreads oul
over $4,000 acres that 10 years ago
were under the wash of the great
Kankakee and the Iroquois swanlps.
The owner is 8. ]. Clifford Of Kan
kakee, who has the distinction not
only of having obtained his Goth year
without having had his picture taken.
, but also of being the most extersil e
farmer in the Mississippi valley south
] of the great wheat growers Of tie
Dakotas.
He is now negotiating for the plr-
chase OF $4,000 acres adjoining his
farm, the property Of Nelson Morris.
the Chicago packer, who uses the
land fer grazing purposes. With the
addition of this tract-the seCoad
largest farm in Indiana-to his place.
Clifford will be able to compare his
acreage with that of farms furthc,
north.
Up to 1890, when Clifford MADE his
first purchase, the Kankakee river
part of the state was one great
mOrass, and northern Jasper coun.y,
in particular, was swamp. OulT
here and there was the monOtony o.
the waste broken by small knobs
islands that furnished a footing 70.
scrub oaks. About the only inhaa
itants had been horse-thieves anil
other lawbreakers who found place.
or refuge there. Today all this aleG
of former waste is a garden sc pr /
ductive that it's owner has refused |
offers OF 500 and even 1925 an ac.e !
for his holdings that have been free,.
Of water.
Gifford's attention was first attra =
ed to the swamp by the rem ark OF d |
real estate man of Jasper county, WHO |
said that all of The north part of the !
was good for nothing, OK |
cept to trade to suckers sight NJ
SEEN" When Clifford offered SIS ii !
acre for 5000 acres in the very cen 81
Of the swamp, the owners unloadeu |
ON him in a hurry. People who ha':
holdings near his purchase hurricu1v
let him know that he could get tne:i
land, too-and to their. astonishmed.,
he took it in until he had 80 900 acres
Of swamp lying in one body and ex-
tending from north to south 10 miie2
and from east to west from two 10
five miles. The soil had been grow
ing rich for centuries through the
decay of vegetable matter and Gifforl
started to drain it. The dredges tina.
Clifford bought had to be ferrieG ~
the islands in the morass, where lre
bottoms were built. They were 'e1,
put at work and for 10 years the.
have been digging-night as we'll 10
1ay-their way out of one marsh into
another and then down to he
[roquois river and back.
It was found that it would be isc
ess to rely on the Kankakee or
drainage, SO the dredges were put at
work cutting through the divide ant
-aking advantage of slight fall ::
II feet to the Iroquois river, 20 hi: =
~ lllC oOuIII WCSt NOW IuGI0
200 miles of waterways, some of them
rom Is to 20 feet deep and from 2G
% 40 feet wide. Drains cut the great
arm up into patches of from IS to
50 acres. AS the bitches were made
he excavated earth was pushed out
over the land, dyk1ng and building it
Up high above the water When ih2
rrcund was thus freed, little at a
line from the water, the work Of re
the soil for cultivation haa
lust begun. The soil was so rich
and the vegetation grew so rank and
rapidly that it was as difficult to con-
luer it as it had been to get dominica
over the water. It has been only IL
he last few years that any Of tl1
great tract was put under cultivatioa, |