Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1907 — TO EXTEND DITCH [ARTICLE]

TO EXTEND DITCH

riovement' to Carry Iroquois Improvement On West TO A POINT SOUTH OF BROOK Another Big Drainage Scheme Hade Necessary By Improvement Now Being Made In Jasper County. A petition was filed in the circuit court this week to extend the Iroquois ditch improvement on west of Rensselaer to a point south of Brook, in Newton county, some twelve to fifteen miles, probably. The notice of petition appears in another part of today’s Democrat. It is proposed to follow the general line of the Iroquois river, and it will be necessary to make quite a wide and deep ditch to carry the water, making it quite a big undertaking but one that will no doubt repay its cost many fold. It has been felt by most. people having lands along the proposed improvement that the work now being done on the upper Iroquois and its branches would necessitate a deepening and widening of the channel west of Rensselaer to take care of the increased flow of water that is sure to come with the completion of the contracts here. It is expected that the improvement now going on will not only bring a freater volume of water down the roquois, but that it will bring it much faster than heretofore, and the continuatioa of the improvement west of Rensselaer is almost an absolute necessity. Most of the landowners, we believe, realize this and it is not likely the proposed improvement will meet with any serious opposition. Concerning the proposed improvement the Newton county Enterprise says: The farmers along the Iroquis river north of Kentland will soon have a proposition to meet if they expect to raise corn instead of ducks on their land. We have previously made mention of the big drainage scheme that is now being carried out in Jasper county whereby the bed of the river from its source to a distance south of Rensselaer is being lowered for the purpose of draining thousands of acres of the marsh lands of Jasper county, and which will divert “oceans” of water into the hitherto sleepy Iroquois that formerly laid in ponds and over marsh lands. Now there is another petition pending in the Jasper circuit court to dredge out the river bed a distance of fifteen miles commencing six miles over in Jasper county and extending this way as far as Brook. What effect this will have on the stream as it runs from Brook on through Newton county is of course problematical, but in view of the fact that the river gets out of its banks with every little freshet it would seem reasonable to suppose that the turning in of the vast volumes of water which the proposed drainage jfill carry this way will keep the river out over the lands a good part of the rainy season. The effect in this county may not be so great as on farther west, From the Illinois line to the mouth of the river as it flows into the Kankakee, the river is very shallow, and any great additional amount of water diverted that way cannot be retained between the banks. If the Iroquois is to be made the principal drainage outlet for central Jasper and Newton counties we believe it will be necessary for Iroquois county, Illinois, to wake up and carry the dredging on to the Kankakee or trade off her wagons and automobiles for canoe boats.