Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1894 — WHAT CHARLEY LANDIS’ OPINION OF OUR LAND IS. [ARTICLE]

WHAT CHARLEY LANDIS’ OPINION OF OUR LAND IS.

Man on the Corner, in Delphi Journal. I see by the newspapers that Hon. A. McCoy, of Rensselaer, last week sold a farm of twelve hundred acres in Jasper county for forty thousand two hundred and forty dollars, or thirty-three dollars and fifty-nine cents an acre. This is one of the largest land sales that ever took place in this part of Indiana. The purchar i ers are gentlemen from During the last five or six years hundreds of farmers from Illinois, having sold out their possession in that state, have moved into Jasper, Benton and Newton counties and taken up their permanent residence. They did this because they ware able to find just as good farming land in these' counties for from thirty to fifty dollars an acre as they could find in Illinois for from sixty to-seven-1 ty dollars an acre. The demand • for this Indiana land of course ■ sent the price up, and those who ! got in on the ground floor five or ; six years ago feathered their nests. It is not generally known to the people of Indiana that the very best corn land in the entire world, or at least as good corn land as there is under the sun., is located in Jasper, Benton and Newton counties. A quarter of a century ago most of this land was under water,,and those people who came from the east turned up their noses at it and passed on to- Illinois. The men who got it bought it cheap, ditched it and the mo-

ment they got the water off of it it became ideal farming land. Last spring 1 over through these -counties just after the soil had been plowed and harrowed preparatory to planting corn. I never saw such protn'tiing fields; they were as level as a floor and the harrow had mumbled the loam and the sand clods until the soil was as fine as that in a garden that has been carefully raked. The,formers over there tell me that they are always sure of acorn crcp. that the season is never too wet nor too dry. Aud i doubt if anywhere in ■ Indiana such oats crops are raise\l as are. raised in these three counties. The quantity is not only immense but the quality is prime. And think of it, this very swamp land in these three counties was what went far toward

giving Indiana the reputation of being a state whose chief products were chills and fever. Here the muskrat was in his glory; here frogs grew to wonderful proportions; here misquitoes were simply torrors, Benton, Jasper and Newton counties were mentioned only as synonyms for things unpleasant. These counties were spoken of when people wanted to joke about Indiana. I wish I could take a lot of these jokers over into thise counties, sometime next spring or summer and let them see what golden promise there is in that section of the Hoosier state. The swamp, the mosquito, the frog, chills and fever, are all a reminiscence over there now. Vast stretches of the most fertile soil under the sun, decked here and there with beautiful farm houses and splendid barns, delight the eye and fill the soul of the proud Indianian with joy, A man who owns a quarter section in any of these three counties is well fix d. The chances are that he sends his children to school well fed and well clad, and, what is better, they have good health. True, there is some poor land in thatjfsection of the state but the best land is so superior that we lost sight of the inferior soil. If you hear anybody speaking jokingly of the swamps of Jasper, Benton or Newton counties, take him by the collar, turn him around, look him in the eye and tell him he is an ignoramus and that he does not know what he is talking about. f