Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-01-10
GET GOLD FROM
MARSH LAND
Chinese MilliOnaires Are Max.
ing Waste Lands Bloom
Like Garden of
Eden

Tomah, Wis.-Truck gardening on
drained marsh lands is a new Wiscon-
sin industry, tried out in Juneau and
Monroe counties the past season by a
colony of Chinese from Chicago.
Hip Lung, mayor of Chinatown, and
Toy Flung. millionaires, the the finan-
cial hackers They leased SIS acres
for five years, and after a seasons try
out, purchased the entire tract from
the wisconsin Drained Land Co. De-
spite dismal native prophecies, the
Chinese on their arrival last March,
set briskly to work preparing the land.
A snowy, cold March, a cold and wet
April, May and June, proved their met
tie and incidentally tested their gar
dening methods If demeanOr speaks,
the bearing of these quiet, painstaking
men plainly said to the pessimistic
native farmers why worry? We
have done out bit, and we leave the
rest to Mother Nature
Limestone Good Fertilizer
The experiment of fertilizing with
ground limestone was successfully adj
vanced further in one season by the
Chinese gardeners than in three by
American methods. The Chinese pillow,
shipped by express from San Fran
CISCO was the wonder of. wonders
When this unique implement is used
three horses travel abreast at the right
of the furrow and the pillow follows at
the left almost on line with the
horses. The land was plowed twice
and narrowed several times. The col
ony purchased fourteen teams of fine
horses.
Four hundred acres of potatoes
bloomed. Close to the Irish potato
grew the aristocratic Chinese variety
used for chop suey. The Chinese
method of deep planting, twelve inches
or more, was matter OF much Sc0rn
to thesnative farmer The potato fields
weathered a cold, wet season, the SUI
preme test. Hundreds of bushels were
shipped to Chicago where they brought
a big price A potato warehouse is one
of the immediate projects Another is
a greenhouse where Chinese vegetables,
lettuce, cabbage, potato and celery may
be grown in winter. The Chinese
varieties are used in Chinese restau-
rants. Hip Lung is the proprietor of
one
The marsh lands have been of little
commercial value, and many acres are
sold for taxes. When drained the
lands are more marketable, but just
the right crop has never been found.
Cranberries have been the best paying
crop. 1t would be interesting if the
Chinese colony should have solved the
great problem and many truck gardens
would in time flourish apace on the
drained lands.
No Women Live There
A visitor to the quarters built by the
colony is made welcome by Toy Flung,
foreman. He is "a graduate of the
University of Wisconsin. No women
are permitted to live at the colony. A
house in the nearby village of Mather
was rented, re-decorated and fur
nished. Here relatives and guests of
the men are housed and entertained.
Many visitors from Chicago, st. Paul
and Minneapolis find their way to this
retreat. Their coming is hailed with
joy. Fifty children from Chicago's
Chinatown were guests for one week
of Hip Lung and Toy Fung.
The colony is divided into camps,
twenty men to a camp. The quarters
are clean and there are two buildings
to camp. One is for living and
sleeping rooms, each man having a sep
arate bed, a hard, board bunk built out
from the wall. The kitchen and din
ing rooms are given over to the cook.
Two brick ovens were built in each
kitchen Each holds an iron kettle
two feet in diameter. One is used for
the preparation of rice or rice and
eggs, the main diet. And the kettle al
ways boils In the other are brewed
all the other Chinese concoctions. In
the brick ovens are baked native pas
tries and American bread.
Big Plans For This Year
Elaborate plans for the coming sea-
son have been made by the far-sighted
gardeners. Potatoes will again have
the largest acreage. One hundred
acres each of cabbage and onions. fifty
acres of celery will be grown, and fifty
acres of Chinese vegetables. A goOdly
crop of hay and grain for the horses
will be necessary Experts from the
Michigan and Florida fields visited
Wisconsin and said the soil of the
drained lands is perfectly adapted to
celery growing Milwaukee Journal
The same Chinese parties mentioned
in the above article are backing the
work of similar nature that has been
started OH the Goocher marsh south of
this city, as frequently mentioned here
tofore in this paper. In Monroe coun-
ty their development work is much far
Their advanced than it is here, having
been started year or two earlier.
However, they are making satisfactory
progress here and now have crew of
Chinese on the land making prepare
tions for the spring work, when the
Chinese colony here will be greatly in
creased
Tho hove rticla Oiyoc UooI idaa