The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-07-22
BY WILLIAM +. COLLINS
Times Special Writer


coming TO pass.
One Of the daily newspapers in
an ID advised and futilly faCetiOUs
attempt refers to the stream i'm
provemcnt program sponsored last
year BY such organizations as the
Izaak Walton League, the American
Saddle Hose Association, the Fish,
Forest and Game League and the
organized spOrtsmcn group as the
Indiana Log Dam System"
Had the editor of this estimable
publication been privileged to sit
with me in Angola last week he
would have heard the first roper
CussiOns. He doubtless IS ignorant
of the fact that the state of Mich
igan has had this system in working
order for at least eight years and
has. by reason of it, added to the
income Of the state at least II mil
lion dollars a year.
He doubtless believes that the
idea sprang full fleged into the
minds of Washington and Wayne
Coy as just another idiOtic method
of spending millions. Personally,
we don't give a cuss who originated
the idea He could have been
BOlShevik or Laplander and it still
would have been a bell ringer.
Henry County Cited
over in Henry County, which the
editor holds up TO a big laugh, the
deluded ones are spending Sill, 462
for log dams. The publication
should also know and report this
that for the last 20 years nothing
has been done in this County to-
ward water conservation. On the
contrary, the only water storage
hole in the county, that area of
muck and marsh land on the up
per Blue River, was drained bone
dry by Republican administrations.
II could have been drained just as
dry by the Democrats or the Nor
mons had they been in office.
The substrata of Henry County
slopes southweSterly. 1t took 10
years for the water to drain out
of Henry County from top to bot
tom. Last year 10 per cent of all
the wells in Henry County dimm-
iShed to miserable trickIes or went
dry.
on one group of eighteen farms,
every well went dry at depths of
from IS to lbs feet and it cost
eighteen farmers an average of S125
apiece to go down below the bed
rock to tap the water that was flow
ing in from some other state.
do not have the complete figures
for Henry County and doubt if they
are available. Men like Ora Fort,
KnightStOWn, one of the prominent
we'll drillerS. might give a fairly
reliable estimate. l believe, how
ever, that the disappearance of the
water table in Henry County has
already cost its inhabitants five
times S1I, 462 and has cut live stock
production twice as much.
knowledge Needed
There are things editors are not
supposed to know They can't know
them if they are not conservation
lists. If they don't take the trouble
to find out, but measure all things
with a political yardStick, then their
opinions are worthless. Sportsmen
know this.
Stream improvement as advocated
by DR.. Carl Hubbs, outstanding ad-
NOcate of the practical management
OF streams, and the man who put
Michigan back on the map with
bass and trout, is divided first into
correcting the abuses caused by
oTerdrainage; second, control of the
sedimentatiOn of channels caused by
deforeStation; third, providing new
spots for fish propagation. and.
finally. increasing the revenue
coming into the state by providing
tourist reCreatiOnal facilities. If you
don't think the last item important
look at the third largest industry in
Michigan that now amounts TO well
above Sl00000000 a year. new dol
lars that never would come near
the state If it were not for its fish
and game. You don't have to look
at Michigan. Look at Steuben
County. Indiana, where the retail
grOCerS' association estimates $500, 600
a year is spent by Sportsmen.
Log Work Important
Stream improvement starts with
log dams. log revetmentS, log barri-
cadeS. log constructions Of any ma
ture that will confne the water in
places and release It in others in a
manner similar TO that We used
and are still using in the jetty sys-
TENS along the Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers.
I never saw a Republican fish in
my life. nor a Democratic tree or
log or a grass root squirrel. never
met a sportsman who cared a whoop
who did the lob of saving some
thing Ct the outdoors that has been
lost so long as the job was finally
done.
Conservation and politics do not
mix. Whoever has tried it in the
past passed cut of the picture with
as Little connection as the Indian
believed he would merit if killed on
the log lam. The river boss told him
if he would dynamite the key log
in the Jam he would greatly en-
nance his reputation on the river.
"Hmmm!' agreed the old AIiCmac
big reputation sure. little piece in
newspaper bout inch long say damn
fool Indian killed on LOS" jam" Be
careful Of the log dams. Mr.. Edi-
tor.