Afterward hoop and stave men and local mills
took the best of the soft wood. Then a ditch, in reality a canal,
was dredged across the north end through, my best territory, and
that carried the water to the Wabash River until oil men could
enter the swamp. From that time the wealth they drew to the
surface constantly materialized in macadamized roads, cosy homes,
and big farms of unsurpassed richness, suitable for growing onions,
celery, sugar beets, corn and potatoes, as repeatedly has been
explained in everything I have written of the place. Now, the
Limberlost exists only in ragged spots and patches, but so rich
was it in the beginning that there is yet a wealth of work for
a lifetime remaining to me in these, and river thickets. I ask
no better hunting grounds for birds, moths, and flowers. The
fine roads are a convenience, and settled farms a protection,
to be taken into consideration, when bewailing its dismantling.
It is quite true that "One man's meat is another's poison."
When poor Limber, lost and starving in the fastnesses of the
swamp, gave to it a name, afterward to be on the lips of millions;
to him it was deadly poison.
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