Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 167, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1915 — TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF ONION PROSPECTS [ARTICLE]

TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF ONION PROSPECTS

Apparently Newland and Springer Loss is Complete—Many Are Planning to Leave. While there is grave uncertainty throughout the agricultural districts of this part of Indiana with regard to wheat, oats and corn, there seems to be no crop so certainly doomed at this time as onions and T. M. Callahan, who is an extensive grower in the Newland fields, states that he believes the crop there is entirely lost. Even where they are not covered with water there is so much moisture in the fields that the hot sun has cooked the tops of the immature bulbs and decay will follow. Mr. Callahan says that there were about 2,000 acres of onions put out last spring and that perhaps as many as 500 acres were lost during the wet weather of May and early June, but the prospects were fine for an immense crop when the last rains came that caused an overflow and the loss of practically if not the entire crop. The same condition exists on the Springer ranch, where conditions are about as bad as can be painted and where the foreigners are said to be practically without money. A meeting of the German-Hungarians from the Springer ranch was held in the office of A., Halleck Wednesday and he advised them to return to their little farms and make the best of it, deferring any action until it is seen how total the olss is. The cabbage and pickles as well as the onions are under water. Harry Reed, who was raising onions and mint for W. H. Hogan, near Gifford, believes that his crops are a .total loss. There was two acres of mint and a fine yield was in prospect. It is under water from 6 to 18 inches.

Quite a number of onion farm owners are planning to leave the fields that two weeks ago held the promise of small fortunes for them. They are going to Ohio, lowa, Pennsylvania and other places. Some are trying hard to keep a “stiff upper lip” but it is about all they can do and if the loss is as complete as some think there will probably be a big exodus during the next month. Wheat and oats are also suffering to a remarkable extent. In many fields shocks of wheat are surrounded by water up to the bands and black decay has set in about the lower part of the straw. The wheat is sprouting in the shocks and is said to be sour and to smell like sour dough. Oats are down flat on the ground and can not be cut on account of the wet, soft ground. It is said that on some farms an experiment is being made to put the binders on mudboats, with the bull wheel only touching the ground and operating the binder with a gasoline engine. Hay is also down and corn either under water or the fields so wet that great damage is resulting. The full extent of the • disaster can not be estimated but it is safe to say that in the onion fields alone $250,000 worth of crops have been lost, while the small grain damage will probably be 50 per cent. The water stands on the ground, the ditches being inadequate to carry it away. The river was still rising in Rensselaer this Friday morning and some reported water backing up into their basements again Thursday night. By noon the water began to fall a little again. The north side prevailed in the matter of whether the sewers under the Monon railroad could be kept open or closed and they are open today and the water is being drained from the north side to the south side, although the sewers were kept stopped up Thursday night. It is understood that Bert Abbott, of the south side, and Marion Cooper, captain of the north aiders, came to blows and that Cooper was knocked dawn in the fracas. The situation in that section is not to be wondered at and the trouble is not due to any of the afflicted persons. Years ago there was an active ditch ran through the central part of town. It was called “Make-em-Self” and during high waters it was a mighty busy little ditch. Some years ago it was decided to make a sewer ditch of it and a 2-foot sewer was installed. The first freshet disclosed the inadequacy of the ■ drain. It was then decided that the ditch should not be filled in over the drain tile, but gradually property, owners began filling up the ditch until the surplus water was dammed up and every time there is a big rain trouble ensues. The great amount of the water comes from the north and the railroad constitutes a dyke that holds it some three or four 'feet high on the north side. Tile drains have been placed beneath the tracks and -this is all right when there is no great excess of water but when the 2-foot sewer is congested the water runs over the

surface of the ground and about the houses. Marion Cooper occupies one of the lowest places on the north side and was ac H ve in pulling the sacks out of the sewers as fast as the southsiders put them in. ( The condition that exists in the east part of town is a matter of such grave concern that steps should be taken to furnish a “good and sufficient” outlet, for it is decidedly unfair that the property owners in that part of town should have to suffer from the high waters when the open ditch of some years ago gave them fairly complete drainage.