Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1912 — JUNGLES DITCH ENTERS GIFFORD. [ARTICLE]

JUNGLES DITCH ENTERS GIFFORD.

Contract Also Calls For Cleaning About a Mile and a Half of the Gifford Ditch." The Jungles ditch proper will be completed some time tonight (Friday). Contractor John Hack came down from Lowell Thursday evening and today went to the scene of the ditching and will be on hand when the entrance to the Gifford ditch is made. The contract will not be completed, however, with the connection, for the cleaning the Gifford ditch for a mile and a half, where it will connect up with a point where- the Sternberg dredge cleaned the ditch about five years ago and which is three-fourths of a mile north and east of the point where 'the Gifford ditch enters the Iroquois, which is near the Pullins’ bridge. The digging of the Jungles ditch has been fraught with many hardships. The big sand hill proved a constant source of trouble and had to be gone over a second time and part of it several times. Mr.- Hack says he will never again tackle a ditch of this character. . At the mouth of the Gifford ditch the Iroquois is badly clogged with the sand and washed soil from above. It should be cleaned again while the Hack dredge is there to do the work. There is a bad lot of muck soil in that neighborhood and Charles Sternberg, the Iroquois ditch contractor, today related how difficult he found it to keep the work down to specifications long enough to have it finally accepted. It will be remembered that he went over two or three miles of the ditch a second time, notwithstanding the fact that he had fulfilled the specifications the first time and had the ditch all but finally accepted. The dirt taken from the channel sank right into the loose muck and forced theNinder ground back into the channel. On the second digging the channel was dug 3 feet deeper than the specifications required but it was again necessary at one point to shovel the dirt Tout before it was finally accepted. 1 It is quite probable that considerable sand will wash from the Jungles ditch to the Iroquois when we have high waters again and it will doubtless require a number of cleans ings at the mouth of the Gifford ditch before the channel can be kept open.