The Kalida Venture

We have read with much interest a letter under the above title in the Springfield Republican, written from Jennings' Prairie, Van Wert Co., Ohio. It gives a graphic account of the North-western section of that State, heretofore so little known—but which is now rapidly growing into importance, and unfolding its hidden riches and resources. We avail ourselves of a few extracts:

SUGAR RIDGE.—"One of the most remarkable features in Northern Ohio and Indiana, is a narrow strip of land called "Sugar Ridge." The ridge commences on the Maumee river, near Fort Wayne, and taking a South-east direction, sweeps through the North-east corner of Indiana, and entering Ohio in Putnam county, it continues to bear South for a few miles, and then taking a northwardly course, intersects Lake Erie, as I have been informed, somewhere near Cleveland, having the form of an irregular half circle. Sugar Ridge is generally from a quarter to a half mile in width, but in many places it is not more than wide enough for the road, which passes along it from Fort Wayne to Bucyrus. Its elevation above the lowlands on either side varies, I should say from five to twenty feet. The Ridge soil is dry and sandy, and was purchased at an early day in the settlement of this part of the country, by speculators and settlers, and it is now much more densely populated than most other parts of this wild region. The farms along the ridge present rather a singular appearance. The improvements, owing to the wetness of the soil off the ridge, are generally long and narrow, and confined almost entirely to the ridge, and most probably run the entire length of the tracts on which they have been made. I saw some farms about half a mile in length each, which were not more than three hundred yards in width, consisting of strings of narrow fields along both sides of the road. This ridge is variously named, according to the timber found on it in different sections. In Indiana, and for many miles in Ohio, it is called "Sugar Ridge." Some parts of it are called "Poplar Ridge," "Limestone Ridge," &c.; but persons who have traced it from one end to the other, say that its course is unbroken, except where it has been cut through by streams, and that the various names, some of which I have given above, apply to the same ridge.

The cause of this strange formation must certainly be an interesting subject for geological investigation and speculation hereafter. This it was an ancient shore of Lake Erie, I think quite probable, though it is now fully a hundred miles, at some points, from that Lake."

ADVANTAGES OF THE CANAL TO THIS REGION.—"A greater temporal blessing could not well have been conferred on the people of North-western Ohio, than has been bestowed upon them by the state, in the construction of the Miami Extension Canal. It is almost as indispensable to the prosperity of this county, as old Nile is to Egypt. Owing to the remoteness of a market, and the badness of the roads, it formerly cost nearly as much as the farmer's surplus produce was worth, to get it to market; and bulky, indispensable articles, as salt, for instance, cost them two or three prices, and owing to the lack of good water power, "hand mills were resorted to, which required the constant labor of an able-bodied man, for an entire day, to grind a bushel or two of corn. But since the completion of the canal, matters have changed, vastly. Now, all the surplus produce, even down to few heads of cabbage, or a pound of butter, finds a ready market and good prices at the shops of the produce dealers, along the line of the canal; and dry goods and groceries can be bought at as low rates as in older and more favored settlements. The canal furnishes an abundance of water power enough, if I am correctly informed, to supply the wants of all the country that has been heretofore in a measure, destitute, and some saw mills are already in operation, and some grist mills are either in the course of construction or in contemplation."

COON HUNTING. This week has been a "powerful time for coon!" to use a back-woods phrase. The snow has been excellent for tracking—the "coon run," nearly every night—and a "desperate sight" of them have been "treed" and taken. One man who lives in sight of where I am staying, made a "terrible good hunt," on Monday. He caught ten coons, and didn't try hard at that. Most of the men here have been engaged in the business. Two schools in the neighborhood have been adjourned over to give the scholars and the teacher a chance to coon hunt. One teacher caught twelve coons during the week, which, at 75 cents apiece, amounts to nine dollars, nearly equal to a month's wages at teaching. He "finds himself," and teaches for twelve dollars a month. This, though it might not have been considered a "dreadful fine hunt," still, to quote the language of the settlers, was doing "miserably well" for the master. Coon hunting although it may be advantageous to some lucky individuals, must in the end, should prices continue high, and the business be followed as it has been here this winter, prove of serious disadvantage to the country at large. Large oaks and walnuts four or five feet in diameter, which, owing to their contiguity to the canal, are worth a dozen coon skins apiece, are frequently cut for single coons. And at the rate at which large timber has been destroyed, it would take but a few years to finish it. Most of