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out a given volume of water in one-half the time now re- 

 quired. Add this to the decrease of friction which would 

 follow, if the water was changed from its present tortuous 

 course, and he could not doubt the success that must attend 

 such system of drainage when applied to the Kankakee and 

 its tributaries. The results that follow a straightened chan- 

 nel and a decreased friction, might not be readily compre- 

 hended, but engineers could understand it, for it was from 

 them he had obtained the views just expressed. 



In many places in the State, swamps a half mile in width 

 and three or four long, were now owned by private individ- 

 uals, and one or two of them, in possession of the lower por- 

 tions of it, might stop all improvement by drainage, by re- 

 fusing to co-operate with the owners above them. It might 

 properly become a subject of legislation to pass a general 

 law fixing the conditions upon which such drainage might be 

 effected. As a sanitary regulation aloue, this legislation 

 could be justified. 



Mr. Litchfield said he saw good already arising out of our 

 meetings. He had come here opposed to attempting a drain- 

 asre of such marshes as the Kankakee, but he would now favor 

 it. The remarks made here had recalled to his mind a suc- 

 cessful instance of draining that had come under his own 

 observation. A person who had 160 acres to drain, had en- 

 tirely succeeded by cutting a ditch. Before it was made, it 

 could not be told which way the water would run, but when 

 made, the waters, by being collected in a straight channel, 

 acquired a current as rapid as a person could walk. 



Mr. Murray said that the swamp lands he knew best were 

 those in Elkhart county, and he was well satisfied that they 

 would be of little value until drained. The swamp lands 

 entered in that county were formerly valued for their wild 

 grass of which hay was made some years ago. But since it 

 has been shown that clover grows well in that county, clover 

 hay has taken the place of swamp land hay. The tame 

 grasses will not grow on these swamps, and hence they have 



