The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1920-10-14
DREDGE THE MANITWOC RIVER

The proposed Manitowoc. River
Drainage district is one of the best
drainage propositions in Wisconsin 1t
is the first step in reclamation of
about 10000 acres of the most fertile
land in Wisconsin when given proper
drainage and management. The first
step in Improvement will be to dredge
the Manitowoc river and its tributaries
for something more than twenty miles.
1t will be one of the largest drainage
projects in Wisconsin, and for this
reason the cost will be less per acre
than it has been on the majority of
the acres in the eighty larger drainage
districts that have been organized in
Wisconsin. By blasting the rock in the
bed of the river at Cato Falls, enough
fall can be secured to make the large
ditch do the work. The main river
ditch will be ten feet deep and prob
ably eighty feet wide, SO that during
flood flow all of the water will run in
the deepened Strengthened channel
The main ditch will have to have a
large lateral extending up each branch
of the marsh This system of outlet
bitches will tour more than half of the
forties of land in the district. The tax
on the fortieS not touched by the
bitches will be less than that on the
forties receiving greater benefits. This
leaves some money in the pockets of
the owners of the more distant lands
to enable them to connect their land
with the main bitches by means of
drain layer. These will probably be
lines of eight and ten inch tile. If a
land owner prefers to have these lat
erals put in now, the commissioner will
probably be able to put them in and
levy higher tax on his land
The cost of the proposed work will
he met by levying a tax against all par
GELS of land that will be benefited by
the proposed drainags. These com
missioners will be appointed by Mr..
Kirwan. The average cost of outlet
bitches that have been organized in
other drainage districts has been in the
neighborhood of ten dollars an acre
The subsequent cost of drainage de-
pends upon the amount of tile that
farmers find they will need to so com
plete the drainage that The land is
made dry enough for the growing of
corn
For convenience the boundaries of
the district follow forty line. This
includes some hard land which will not
be taxed. If man has a forty Of land
included in the district of which only
five acres is wet, the major tax will be
levied only upon the five acres. No
tax will be levied against the high land
The state laws are liberal with ref
crcnce to the payment of drainage
taxes If land owners desire it, they
may have twenty years in which to
pay for the main bitches now pro-
posed, paying 6 per cent interest on
this tax in the meantime. This post
pones the time for the payment of the
tax until the land is made TO produce
and can pay its own tax.
Certain people for reasons of their
own, have tried to make the farmers
afraid of this proposition. Il wish to
warn farmers o of misrepresentation
That have been made. Between now
and the day of the hearing, each man
should give the proposition his inde-
pendent thought and decide for him
self whether he wants at this time to
Join hands with his ncighbor and
drcdge the Manitowoc river which is
the backbone of the whole project or
whether he wants to wat another ten
or fifteen years and lose his crops in
the meantime. If the proposition is
delayed, each land owner will lose more
than his crops, because he will waste Il
certain amount of labor each year try
ing to keen the small bitches open, and
trying to clean out the bitches on the
land, This kind of drainage is unsats-
factory and will continue to be unsat-
isfactory until the channel of the river
is deepcncd and straight as is now pro-
posed Prof T.. II. Jones, Department
of Engineering, Madison, Wis, in Chill
ton Times