niiy^j 



MR. AND MRS. BEN SWAGLER 

 Inspecting shrubbery in front oi their home. His father cdme from Switzer- 

 land in '48. 



MR. AND MRS. HENRY RENSCHEN WITH 

 Patricia. Paul and Margaret, the three youngest of 12 

 children. 



A Paradise Molded from Clay 



By Lawrence Potter 



((OV IGHT CLAY," the term 

 / usually applied to the 

 \^ soils of Clinton county, is 

 hardly adetjuate to describe the land. In 

 the early spring especially, the finely 

 divided particles of soil run together 

 so compactly th.it "rubbery" seems to be 

 the proper name for it. 



From this land that farmers in other 

 parts of Illinois might call poor, the 

 thrifty people of Clinton county have 

 molded a veritable paradise. The story of 

 how they succeeded is one of the out- 

 standint; histories of soil building in 

 modern times. 



The yields of wheat from 1 H24, when 

 the county split from Washington county 

 and set up its own government at Carlyle, 

 until 191 H seldom exceeded an average 

 of ten bushels per acre. If the fertility 

 in the soil was sufficient to produce more, 

 two generations of farmers had failed to 

 find the farming system that would make 

 it available to them. 



Although the county was first settled 

 by folks of English extraction, the first 

 real farmers were German immigrants 

 who came shortly after the county was 

 established. By that time many of the 

 first settlers had begun to seek greener 

 pastures and they left most of the flat, 

 gray land still unplowed. 



One of the many descendants of the 

 immigrants farming in the county is 

 Henry Renschen whose 100 acres is 

 located four miles from Breese. Tliis 

 land has been in Renschen's family since 



T'wenty Years of Soil Building Directed by the Clinton 

 County Farm Bureau Has Achieved Amazing Results 



1S46 when his grandfather on his moth- 

 ers side settled there. 



Tlie grandfather, like many other na 

 tives of Hanover in Germany, sailed from 

 the land of his birth to seek the freedom 

 of the American j-irairies. In Germany 

 when a bov became a man he was com 

 pel led to serve in the army. Because 



"LIMESTONE RED" REHLING 

 "He led the way." 



most of the boys of the Cierman farm- 

 mg class liked the soil lx.-tter than the 

 army tiicv sought lands m the new world 

 before they re.ichcil manhood. 



When Renschen's people left Germany, 

 they headed for Germantown in Clinton 

 county, Ilhnois. uhere some of their 

 countrymen had settled a few years be- 

 fore. These immigrants sailed on a 

 windjammer' to New Orleans. ITie 

 trip lasted 16 weeks. At the mouth of 

 the .Mississippi river they boarded a 

 steamer boimd for St. I,oui>. 



I'rom St. I.ouis they started to walk 

 across the coimtry. They waded through 

 the botloni lands covertil with grass 

 which grew shoulder high. This soggy 

 land with its heavy covering was not 

 for them. How would they plow it.' 

 How could they store their vegetables 

 for winter where tlie soil was too wet 

 to permit them to dig cellars^ Surely, 

 they thought, this is not the land alx)ut 

 which our friends had written. Tliey 

 pressed on. 



liven the higher land didn't look good 

 to them because it too. was covered 

 with tall grass that would prevent them 

 from plowing it. Tliey were poor folk 

 who couldn't afford to buy oxen or 

 horses enough to turn this tough sod. 

 Again they waded on through the grass. 



About 35 miles from the river they 

 came upon the land for which they 

 had Ix^cn seeking. The soil was dark 

 gray and the land was almost as level 

 as a floor but best of all. thcv had at last 



MAY, 1937 



9 



