IMPROVEMENT OF MUCK SWAMPS. 155 



With regard to the muck swamps, the opinion is prevalent that they can 



-aiot be converted into valuable land and that any attempts to improve their 



'Condition is simply a waste of time and money. This opinion will be found 



generally based on experiments made twenty or thirty years ago to cultivate 



these swamps without drainage. 



What shall and can be done with our swamps, is a question of a great 

 deal of importance to the farmers of our country. These swamps cover in 

 the aggregate a vast amount of land, which is even to-day, with a few excep- 

 tions, waste land which brings no return whatever for the capital invested. 

 In some instances, marshes have been improved to produce grass valuable 

 for pasture or meadow; in still fewer cases they have been so far improved 

 as to produce good crops of grain with equal or even more certainty than the 

 upland surrounding them. 



Usually, however, the swamps produce only a luxuriant growth of sedge 

 or rush, a plant of little value as animal food, and so coated on its edges 

 with silica as to be as dangerous to the hands as a piece of broken glass. It is 

 not relished by animals; it is, to a great extent, indigestible, and is only 

 eaten when better food cannot be had. 



Probably the only value of the unimproved swamps is for growth of the 

 sedge, or marsh-hay, as it is called, which is of such low feeding value as to 

 be hardly worth storing. Again, many of these swamps are full of danger- 

 ous bogs, and there is hardly a farm bordering on such marshes but that can 

 count greater loss caused by stock miring, than gain from the products of 

 the swamp. Who can state the number of valuable animals that have found 

 "their fate in the marsh-bogs? 



INDIGENOUS TIMBER. 



There are some varieties of timber that will grow on these marshes — 

 Tamarack and Arbor Vitae or White Cedar grow in such places. Tamarack 

 will grow and do well on a muck bed fifty or sixty feet deep. White Cedar 

 will grow in swamps that to my own personal knowledge, are dangerous 

 ■even for a man to pass through. Tamarack seems to flourish best in swamps 

 with stagnant water, and the cedar best in swamps which gives rise to clear 

 spring wi.ter. Tamarack, although well adapted for some uses, is generally 

 not regarded as a valuable timber. White Cedar, on the other hand, is our 

 most valued timber for fence posts, telegraph posts and kindred uses. Yet, 

 despite its value, I do not know of any attempt to grow it artificially, and 

 have doubts whether such attempts would be attended with financial success. 

 Trees as a crop, will perhaps never be much in fashion. There are few men 

 who are willing or can afford to sow for their grandchildren to reap — 

 ■consequently I would not advise the experiment of planting tamarack or 

 white cedar on your marshes. 



In swamps where there is little muck, ash, elm and birch are frequently 

 found. The swamps that support such trees, however, hardly come under 

 the head of waste land. Where were originally such swamps are now found 

 the richest portions of our fields. 



There are numerous shrubs that grow in swamps, in some cases where the 

 muck is very deep. The willow, huckleberry and various others are usually 

 found in connection with ground more or less swampy. 



FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



It is, however, to the muck swamps that I wish to call your attention to- 



