The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-08-26
WILD LAND
The Value of Drainage Near
Rothville, Mo.
CROPS WHERE FISHES ONCE SWAN

How q "Yankce Farmer" sought
swamp Land For Fifty Cents an
Acre and IL Converting 1t Into Pro-
ductive Land Worth From FIFTY
to seventy-hve Dollars.
One Of the largest private enterprises
In the west to reclaim waste land Is
now under way between Rothville, Mo-,
and Deans lake, on the Atchison, To-
peka and Santa Fe railroad, says the
Kansas City Star. The fire in the en-
CINE operating the dredger is never
banked, because the force works in
two shifts throughout the entire day
and night. The tract comprises 5000
acres Of swamp land, which a year ago
was a sportsman's ideal resort for duck
hunting and fishing. The owner is w.
A. Rankin of Rankin, Ill, who is open
ing the eyes of Missourians to the val
ue Of land they had long since given
yer to the fishes. Mr.. Rankin was
four years buying this big lake. 1t
was sold by the county as swamp land
at from so cents to 81 an acre. The
whole tract could not be acquired at
once, and the investor waited patiently
until he could obtain a tract the size
he wanted. The people smiled at the
sorry for him. They are not plying
him now, because they see that Mr..
Rankin was wiser than they knew.
Nj. Rankin's dredgers have been at
work about a year. Here and there
where the water has been drained off
are small patches of corn, hay and oats.
Their advanced condition now clearly
indicates the remarkable productive
ness of the land.
The main canal running through the
center of the swamp will be four miles
long and twenty feet wide. 1t will
empty into Yellow creek, which in turn
loses itself in the Grand river. There
will be lateral bitches leading to the
main canal. With the water removed
most nothing by the drainage bitches,
the tract will rise into high class Mis-
souri, farming lands-from $50 to $75
per acre. Mr.. Rankin has already in
vested $4,000 in the drainage work
and intends to place as much more be-
fore he has his system perfected. He
employs every ablebodied man at from
$1.5O to So a day, but it is noticeable
that most of the workmen are .stran-
gers in the community. The reason is
that Rothville laborers have an yer
sion to working in the mud. It is not
a clean job, and the man who under
takes it must face the necessary condi-
ton Of soiled clothes as if he enjoys it.
There is no more fifty cent land in
these parts. Mr.. Rankin's enterprise
has sent prices skyward. Those who
own swamp land, but haven't the mean
to convert it into productive fields, will
wait in the hope that another million
aire investor may start their way. 1t
would be useless for the owner of a
few hundred acres to attempt any
marked improvement on his own ac-
count, because water from adjoining
lands would nullify his efforts, but
many small landowners could com
bine and organize a drainage associa-
ton under the laws laid down for that
purpose. There il talk of doing this
since observing the admirable results
of the Illinois mans system.
Mr.. Rankin employs between sixty
and seventy e They live in tents
located on the high land. The dredger
eats its way through the land. the wa
ter following behind in the completed
canal. No retracing is required. The
waterway is finished up to the point
where the dredger stands. The people
of the ~neighborhood Of Rothville call
Mr.. Rankin "the Yankee farmer be-
cause he came into a wilderness that
nobody wanted and with his strange
looking craft is driving out the fish and
water moccasins and turning it into a
land Of promise. 1t is Yankee-like,
they say, to do those things.