The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-02-05

ESTABLISHED 1854.
IMPROVING A BOTTOM FARM.
Thousands of Dollars being Expend-
ed by BOwsher & BOwsher, on
Their Weldon River Farm.
The firm of Bowsher & Bowsher,
the widely known implement dealers
of Leon, who, few years since, be-
came the owners of the big Beau
mont farm located in Woodland and
Morgan townships, Decatur County,
six miles northeast of Lineville, are
engaged in solving the problem OF
river bottom farming by putting in
a thorough and complete system of
;,ing of the 47O acres of bottom
md bordering on Weldon river and
f:eel creek, both of which streams
SJw through the place. The Beau
font tract originally comprised Of
over 1000 acres of which Messrs.
Bowsher & Bosher acquired the rich
est and most valuable portion, 677
acres in all, excepting about 200
acres, of which is bottom land. This
portion of the land the owners at
once began the work OF thing and
draining according to the most sue
cessful and advanced methods OF
treating such lands. They took no
chances, but employed Mr. John
Johnson, of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, man
ager and thing boss, assisted by a
corps Of men, to survey and make a
plat of the entire system and place
the tile. He will continue as super
intendent of the work until it is COM
pleted Six car loads of thing pur-
chased of eastern firms, besides all
that the Rand Lumber Co., of this
place had on hand, were hauled out
and laid during the past season, and
three more car loads have been or
dered and await the opening OF
spring and favorable conditions when
work. of laying will be resumed. At
least five more car loads will be re-
quired to complete the system. The
work gives employment to all the
local labor in the vicinity, many be-
ing employed in other work than
laying tile such as clearing ground,
blowing out and removing stumps,
cutting out willows and removing
other Instructions of the flow of
water along the bed of the stream,
thus facilitating the more rapid flow
of water in times OF freshets and
lessening the chances Of oyerfloWs.
Other improvements have also been
made not the least of which were
the clearing of all the brush and
stumps along the roadway through
the entire farm of u miles length,
and the scraping out of about two
feet of sand of the famous Sandy
Point" hill in the high road in front
of the house which has been source
of trouble and yexation to wagons
and automobiles, and filling it up
with clay, making solid road bed
for all kinds of vehicles.
Mr.. j. F. Ellis, who resides on and
operates the farm, plowed about 60
acres of the tiled bottom land last
fall and with an ordinary season ex-
poets q yield of about 80 bushels of
corn per acre this season. The ground
thus tiled drains quickly in case of
j, '.ayy rains or oyerflows, enabling
d. land to be planted and cultivated
ccess Zines weeks before similar land,
Miss led, can be worked. Messrs.
schoo; er & Bowsher are also leaders
Miss Enterprise to Strengthening the
- w. II Va NCANOA AASSA OAA oSSSA
Henry the aid of a powerful trac-
ternoon zine and ditching machine.
G.. v. sent channel it not far from
'on yisitIern boundary OF the Bowsher
I'd Ru' ID near the eastern boundar-
cnday he big bottom farms belong
Joe c. H. Trembly, Y. B. WATSON
oyd lark Hooker. and all may even
Orally combine and accomplish the
work, which would prevent many
damaging overflows. The time is not
far distant when bottom farms will
be the only corn producing lands of
this section unless the owners of the
higher farms change their methods
by conserving the resources OF their
soil by rotation of crops, blowing un-
der clover, or by other means of re-
newing fertility of the soil When
that period arrives, if ever. the deep
and oft renewed fertility of the bot
tom lands will prove mines of wealth
to their owners.
The Bowshers are pioneers in this
section in the modern methods OF
improving bottom lands, but others
will gradually follow their example
and reap sure rewards in fruitful
crops where others fail.-Lineville
Tribune.