With all of the land in Boone county appearing to be table flat , one would expect it to be high and dry. The Surveyors of 1830 found it to be otherwise. Approximately 1/2 of the land, by all accounts, was like that pictured....water, trees, tangled vines and bushes.
You could buy it cheap, and you could cut the timber and build houses, barns and fences and then you could deal with the water.
The problem appeared to be simple, "dig a ditch". It would remain a "simple" problem for he farmer for the next 200 years.
Progress was made slowly. Previously mentioned, major, ditches were dug. but by the 1870 census there were over 100,000 acres of unimproved farmland covered in woodlands and water.
The "small" patches of dry ground could be worked and they were but there were still too few of them. The early choices were a corn patch, some gourds and pasture for the horse, cow and maybe sheep.
Comments