The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-05-03
Former Owners, Tenants, Neishbors
and Experienced Men Of Similar
localities Testify to Val
ues Of Lands.
ACTUAL MARKET VALUES
Fixed at Much Lower Figures Than
Those Demanded by the Pres
ent Owners Of the Water
Power Company.

"A multitude OF witnesses who speak
by the card from rich experience as
former owners, tenants, or neighbors
of the land In controversy, or as farm
ers and farm owners in similar situa-
tons in the Mississippi river bottoms
passed through the witness chair in
the Green Bay cases being heard in
the federal court room here.
Walter M. Allen, master in chan
Gerry of the United States court at
Springfield, heard enough about aqua
tic agriculture to give him very fair
idea of how farming has been done
on the Miller land and LOOMS island
where barges seem to have been as
much part of the iylrm equipment
as plows we're.
An interesting phase OF the evil
dence was the testimony of several
/ former tillers of the Miller land that
1 it has gone back to wild state OF
| nature, as regards about one-third of
1t, in the last dozen years, brush
!, having replaced former corn fields, on
4 account of the wetness of the land
To Be Continued.
The hearing is being pushed rapidly
by the master in chancery, and ends
its present sessions this afternoon
1t will be resumed at Burlington ant
Fort Madison the latter part of the
month.
The concensus of opinion by the
d Witnesses was stated to be about So,
+ per acre as the actual value of the
Miller land for which the presen
owner demands s75 to $50, an acre
and $40 or s12 an acre for the Loomi!
island for which the demand by the
owner from the water-power compan,
is SIS an acre.
From Wide knowledge.
With experience around Cantor
Mo-, and below Warsaw, with 10y
lands, Homer w Roberts, a farr
owner and steamboat pilot who own
islands and closely watches farr
I operations on them said he knows o
several islands for sale and the prices
He inspected the LOOMS island an
after describing it testified that $40.
so to $12 per acre is its fair marke
value. The owner demands $50 pc
acre for it.
Roberts said he owns better is
land than the Loomis island, with
| hundred acres in cultivation, adjoir
, ing Canton, which he offers for sal
j fat $12 an acre.
: He had carefully examined the Mi
Ter land and found part of it YER
good and worth $40 and over thir
: of it worthless, the rest being wort
) SIS an acre He said $50 an acre
good price for the whole tract
i He said examination of the SteiI
/ graber land-and all his description
: were the best heard on the stand
! showed part of it better than othe
t parts, and the value of the tract i
! controversy to be from $40 to $50 a
8 acre.
! Another Big Farmer.
Fifty years along the Mississippi
] river and owning over 1000 acres {
low and island land, farming part c
it for quarter of century, quail
2 fed R. NJ. Bushnell as an expert o
] such lands preliminary to his valu'
ton of the Green Bay land. Afte
: examining the Miller land, he said So
t to $50 is fair, market price for /
The Loomis island he priced at 81
as a maximum per acre based o
owning 1900 acres of islands simila
J to it and studying many more island
, He said he bought better islam
than Loomis' this year for $3.50 a