FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 177 



there were no swamps. The kind now covered by them was bottom land, bear- 

 ing a growth of swamp-oak, eha, soft maple, etc., with a brook running 

 through. The beavers came and built their dams and raised the water over 

 the roots of the timber deep enough to kill it, and in time tiie dead timber fell 

 and the jiond filled up with vegetable matter until a soil was finally produced 

 for the present swamp growth. This is proved by finding the dams, and by 

 finding in the bottom of every swamp, no matter what is its present growth on 

 the surface, the kinds of timber I have named buried deen — in fact at the bot- 

 tom of tlie muck. This is almost always the case. You will find the hard 

 timber at the bottom, though you may find, and frequently do, several genera- 

 tions of swamp timher above it. These swamp lands were almost entirely use- 

 less for any agricultural purpose, and the little that could be realized from 

 their timber or pasturage or (in the case of open marslies) the wild hay that 

 might be cut upon them, furnished but a poor return for the capital locked 

 up in their purchase and the taxes annually paid upon them. 



Covered, as they were, a considerable portion of the year with water and 

 decaying vegetable substances, they were fertile sources of malaria that would 

 load the atmosphere with the germs of such diseases as fever and ague, chill 

 fever, and others of a kindred nature; and scattered as they were all over the 

 county, few would escape their influence. Consequently, before anything was 

 done by drainage to mitigate their influence, the diseases caused by malarial 

 poisoning formed a very large majority of all the sickness and suffering front 

 disease in the county, and rendered necessary nearly all the expenditures for 

 medicines and medical attendance, as well as the loss of time caused by sick- 

 ness; and I am informed by medical men, and those, too, besc qualified by 

 their experience and practice to judge, that the change in that particular since 

 the county drain system went into operation has been marvelous, and that ma- 

 larial diseases have almost entirely disappeared — in fact, it is claimed by many 

 that the saving to the inhabitants of the county from that source alone would ' 

 pay for digging all the county drains which have been dug. I am inclined to 

 believe myself that the claim is well founded. 



The county is greatly favored by nature in the matter of drainage. It forms 

 an irregularly rolling plateau, descending from a point a little south of the 

 center in three directions — south, west and north. Grand river encircles it 

 from a point a little south of the center of the south line of the county to the 

 extreme northwest corner, while the Red Cedar river, from the center of the 

 east line runs north nearly to the northeast corner, and then westerly through 

 the north range of townships until it unites with Grand river nearly at the north- 

 west corner of the county, these two rivers encircling the county, always near 

 the line, for fully three-quarters of its circumference. Both of these rivers 

 are beautiful, swift-flowing streams, with bold banks, and timbered to the 

 water's edge. The former furnishes four and the latter two water powers 

 between where they enter and where they leave the county. 



In addition to these two large rivers encircling the county as they do, it is 

 intersected by numerous smaller streams which, rising in the central part, flow 

 outwardly, and empty their waters into the rivers. Some of these streams are 

 the Sycamore, Mill, Dorrel, Willow, Webb, Mead, Hawlcy, Doan, Deer, and 

 Dertz creeks, and many smaller ones either emptying into these or directly into 

 either one or the other of the rivers. The heads of these streams interlock in 

 the central part of the county and they flow in the three directions mentioned, 

 thus furnishing admirable outlets for almost every part of the county. And 



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