Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-06-25
VAST AMOUNTS Of
GRAIN DESTROYED
BY June FLOODS
CLAIM ST ,00o.O 900 WORTH OF CROPS
WERE SACRIFICED IN HIGH
WATERS-START MOVE TO
SAVE RIVER LOW LANDS.

SAVE RIVER LOW LANDS.
Springfield, H.. June - More than
$1O00,000 worth Of crops, the great.
err part corn, Immensely valuable at
the present time as food material
was lost in central Illinois by Hoods
Of the past month. This amount
probably would be tripled ii the loss
of the entire state were known.
Much of 1t could have been saved il
a comprehensive and intelligent sys-
TEN Of farm drainage were used in
Illinois.
This is the assertion OF 5. L.
Prather. owner OF several thousand
acres Of Sangamon county land ana
known thruout the state as pro
gressiye farmer and leader in agricul-
tural betterment
There are 10000 acres Of bottom
lands in Sangamon county Many
southern and eastern Illinois counties
have as large an acreage which lies in
river beds and are subject to over
flow by excessive rains MIR, Prather
said today.
More than nine-tenths OF the i'm
meuse acreage Of bottom land in Hi
nois is or can be cultivated There
fore the question of innundati0n and
destruction Of crops becomes a seri.
Gus question for Illinois. And the
proper drainage and leyeeing OF these
lands must necessarily at an early
date become a paramount issue in
the conservation Of food products as
well as wealth in the counties affect
ed.
This is largely an engineering
problem. but it no doubt is to the
interest of the public as well as the
property owners to find some feasible
plan for the safeguarding of these
lands, which are certainly as fertile
as any other parts OF our domains.
Each county in the state could
well afford to employee a competent
engineer to thoroly investigate this
proposition. The expense should be
born by an appropriation made by
each county's board Of supervisors
or board of commissioners.
THE facts are the waters Of the
various streams which furnish the
drainage of the entire county are Of
ten seriously affected by leyees lead
ing to bridges across the streams,
piers and abuiments Of the same and
in some places the entire stream is
damned up by concrete work extend
ing the entire length OF the river.
There is constant effort on the
part of railroad companies and 9th
ers to decrease the length of bridges
and the number of openings for the
passage of water underneath where
the railroads or roads cross the bot
tom lands of the state,
Carefully worked out plans by
competent engineers assisted by
those who have had life long ex-
perience in handling bottom lands
would no doubt deyelope a system
of drainage and leyees that would oy
ercome this condition and would
mean a gigantic saving to Illinois farm
owners as well as adding many acres
to the tillabe lands Of the state
"The loss Of crops on bottom lands
and the damage to growing corps has
been too large for estimate, especial
ly to the corn crop, by the heavy rains
all over the state in the past few
weeks. All of the level lands were
turned almost into lakes and a large
acreage must be planted over The
rolling lands on hillsides were wash
ed into gullies. Most of the corn
lands were beaten down SO that it Is
difficult to give the corn crop thoro
cultivation. The fertility OF the SOIL
Is badly damaged by heavy rains car
rying a large amount of the strength
ana life Of the soils into the rivers
Probably more than SeyentyllVe
per cent of our corn lands were not
in condition to stand so heavy a
rainfall without serious deterioration.
This condition of the corn crop in
Central Illinois has led many farmers
to state that our prospects for large
corn crop has been curtailed by more
than 81 per cent And as the bottom
lands were growing the best wheat
crops this year the destruction of toe
same will make a serious inroad in
our harvest returns
tana and Indiana Four of these, il