THE KANKAKEE MARSH.
At the last session of the General Assembly an ; act was passed empowering the Governor to appoint a Civil Engineer to make a survey of the wet and swamp lands of the Kaukakee region in this State, and to take levels, and make careful estimates, with a view of ascertaining the cheap est and most practicable outlets and routes, by which to effect successfully a drainage of that vast body of fertile lands. An appropriation of $5,000 was made to enable the Engineer to prosecute the work, and the Governor was empowered at his discretion, to direct surveys to be made of other wet lands for a like purpose.
The vast region of the Kaukakee is shown to be one of the most fertile regions of the State, and, by the excavation of a nearly straight channel to conduct the water of the river, a sufficient fall can be obtained to effect a thorough damage. The ease with which the channel can be constructed is most gratifying, and the cost of effecting a drainage, however considerable it may appear, bears no sort ot proportion to the additional value which drainage will impart to the lands. These lands, on account of their proximity to Chicago, are covered by a network of leading lines of railroads. The estimates of the Engineer, who is of a cautious and page: 24[View Page 24] conservative temper may be regarded as being certainly above, rather than below, what would be the actual cost of the work required to be done.
It was hoped that the rocky bottom of the bed of the river, which begins in Illinois, two miles west of our State line, would not at that point oppose any obstacle to a thorough drainage, but the Engineer believes that the water, flowing through its new channel, holding particles of earth in suspension, would be likely to deposit a sediment at that point and make a bar which might render lands adjacent to the river liable to overflow. He thinks that for a distance of half the length of the contemplated channel the work of drainage can safely be prosecuted without delay, but that the rest of the work should await an acquisition of the right to remove for a specified distance the rocky obstruction referred to. A belief has been expressed, however, by some hydraulic engineers that until the new channel shall practically cease to make the stream muddy any tendency to create a bar at the point mentioned might probably be prevented by one of the small vessels needed, at any rate, to be maintained in the river for some time after the completion of the work, being fitted with simple mechanical appliances, enabling it to stir the sediment and keep it in suspension until it can pass off in the current which flows freely over the rocky bottom of the river at that point.
With respect to the manner in which this important understaking shall be prosecuted, there will no doubt be found a diversity of opinion. The law of 1869, which intended to provide a practical scheme for the the accomplishment of the work, was repealed by the General Assembly soon after its enactment. It was found that the effect of the law would be to subject to sale for a non-payment of assessments the lands of most of the small proprietors. Such proprietors can not pay any considerable assessments until an increase of crops, occasioned by the reclamation of their lands, provides them with the means of payment. Some method must be devised, if they are to be protected by which the work may go on and there may be a reasonable delay in the collection of the assessments. With respect to the portion of these lands included n the grant of swamp lands made to the State by the United States, the State engaged, when it sold them, that the proceeds of the sales should be applied toward draining them. It must be confessed that this engagement was imperfectly kept. The more sanguine proprietors have hoped that, in consideration of this face, the State would at its own expense undertake to drain these lands. It does not, however, seem to me likely that the Legislature would be willing to charge the State with the expense of so considerable an undertaking. But the fact that the State so imperfectly kept its engagement should certainly incline it to a course of liberal legislation. It is believed that it would be competent for the State itself to advance money, retaining a lien on the lands for a return thereon; but if this should be deemed inexpedient it might empower the Counties to be benfited by the drainage to guarantee bonds to be issued in payment for the work, retaining a lean on lands benefited in analogy to the provision respecting aid to Gravel Road Companies. The subject is one of so great importance that it should engage your early and most earnest attention.
