The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-09-27
FLOOD CONTROL
DIRE NECESSITY
FOR HOLSTERS
Prevention Not Sufficient
Step for Safety, Says
State Expert.
CONTINUED From Page One)

to bed with the water level below
the river bank and awoke at mid
night to the sound Of the COW barn
humping the house.
True, the improvement deny
drafted several square miles Of bot
tom land and IL has produced a
lot Of cotton. but there is also a
drainage tax Of s45 an acre bonded
over a twenty-year period and there
has been a depression and there it
too much cotton and there is also
too much tax.
Figure these factors together and
the net result will be the nadir of
accomplishment and the loss Of a
very valuable natural reservoir. I'll
not mention the loss to all the peO-
pie Of the finest fishing and hunt
ing ground I ever have shot owe
for you might think me p~rejudiced.
Drains Laid in Fields
Then came the period of laying
out highways or cartways through
the forest. Early histories of In
diana describe sCme Of the most
popular Of these with such names
as the Whetzel. the Ballinger and
the V%incennes trace.
The Vincennes trace, by the way.
was laid out on the line of an old
buffalo trail. The pioneer left his
bateaux and his pole boat and his
dugout for a swifter method Of
transport. The population grew, the
fire in the clearing consumed tim
Der that now would purchase the
land twice over. Then came the
next act of aggravatiOn.
As the bottom lands were cleared,
impatient with the loss of or
two early crops out of five or more.
Grains were laid through the fields
to some neighboring bayou. Gradu-
ally the bayous were connected to-
gether by slip scraper bitches, the
drains cemented into a long chain
taken over by the local county Unit,
first in the form of small open
bitches that would in themselves
hold a considerable amount of sur
plus water. but finally in the form
Of tile drains that were highly effec-
tive in sluicing water out of the
country. but which held the abso-
lutte minimum in reserve.
To complete the ruin Of the stor-
age reservoir. along in the late
nineties. a paChydermatOus steam
monster commenced wallowing in
the SwampS and there was no closed
season on its activities.
This Is How II Goes
Wherever five men could be found
by some contractor out of a Job
who believed the tale that a dredged
ditch through their land would
make them rich. out came the
petition out came the accommodating
lawyer, out wallowed the ubiquitous
dredge boat and the thing was done.
I still have fresh in my memory
the plight of a man whose name I
car not print, but who lived in
northern Boone county. over a
period of years. he accumulated a
fine body of land along Sugar Greek
and out of that land made enough
money to furnish his family with
most of the comforts of life.
A nine-room modern home stood
on the hillside above the fat acres
in the river bottom. A spacious
lawn, a twenty-fcur stanchion
cement floor COW barn. a harSe born
and lot. and a dairy house COM
pleted the picture of rural comfort.
Another Story Ends
With the growing needs of the
family. a small loan was placed on
the land, a loan that even in these
depressing times. could have been
kept liquid. Some folks above the
town of Merchandising. with the
help of an accommodating lawyer
verSed in drainage problems. con-
ceived the idea that their township
needed bigger and better drainage.
And they got it. And the next spring
the water that came out of that
township came out in a hurry.
Sugar Creek was not big enough
by four TO accommodate the rush.
It passed over Egypt, not once but
many times. and the fertile bottom
acres became a sand and gravel bed.
This story ends just as you are ex-
pecting II tOAend.
The loan company foreclosed and
now has this farm for sale at so per
cent of its investment. There have
been several more foreclosures in
the drained township.
They let their drainage taxes fall
delinquent. Special assessments ate
them out of their farms. The bless
ing of the three huge dredged
bitches reacted against them as it
did against the farmers in northern
Newton county. and in other places