IMPROVEMENT OF MUCK SWAMPS. 159' 



the same by evaporation very slowly; the coarser its texture the greater- 

 its power in that direction. 



The necessity of removing the water has I think been clearly shown. 



We will no doubt find, however, that in some soils other requirements are 

 equally imperative and I do not claim that drainage alone is the universal 

 panacea that will render your worthless peat bogs into fertile and available- 

 soil. 



The English, who are cultivating thousands and thousands of acres of peat 

 bogs, find they get excellent results by the application of a coating of clay 

 two or three inches thick. This tends to compact the muck and leaves it in 

 better shape to nourish vegetation. Top dressings of lime or marl or wood 

 ashes are excellent, as they supply many missing qualities for plant growth. 

 But these latter things are expensive and I wish to show that if time be- 

 allowed to act, drainage alone will renovate your swamp. 



The improvement of those marshes in which the muck is a mass of 

 unrotted moss fiber or tangled roots, is a matter in which to say the least, 

 time is required; until the mass has fully rotted no improvement can take 

 place and none need be expected. Under water, vegetable matter decays- 

 very slowly, so that by removing the water the decay will be hastened materi- 

 ally. The results from such a case will not in any event be flattering, and 

 if good results are obtained, drainage must be followed by the application 

 of some material that will tend to decompose the vegetable matter. 



There is no doubt but that the muck or peat swamp, as it usually exists,. 

 can be converted into a valuable meadow, simply by thorough drainage and 

 the application of natural grass seeds. I will prove this position by actual, 

 trials. 



DEAINTAGE OF SWAMPS AT MICHIGAJiT AGRICULTUKAL COLLEGE. 



I will present a case at the College: In the western part of field No. 8- 

 was a large tamarack swamp, which originally covered about six acres. In 

 1872 this swamp was thoroughly drained. The muck was very deep — at 

 least ten or twelve feet — the drains were laid at a depth of about three and 

 one-half feet. Immediately after being drained the swamp was thrown into- 

 the same system of cultivation as the rest of the field, which was a rotation 

 consisting of two clover crops, followed by corn, then roots, and ending with 

 two grain crops, oats followed by wheat. 



For two or three years the crops on the muck swamp were not good.. 

 Corn always did well; oats at first grew mostly to straw; wheat was first 

 badly winter-killed. For several years, however, the crops from the muck 

 portion of the field have been equally good, and somewhat better than from 

 the remainder of the field. The muck swamp has continually improved 

 until it is fully equal to the remainder of the field in value, and this toO' 

 without the application of any foreign material. The muck, at first, after 

 being drained and thoroughly dried seemed to lose all its cohesiveness and 

 compactness and it suffered more from a drouth than the upland. It was 

 longer drying out, but when once it was dried out, it seemed to lose its 

 property of imbibing water for some time to come. The work of draining 

 seemed to be overdone. In a few months it, however, began to regain its- 

 compactness, and now compares favorably in that respect, with the remainder- 

 of the field. The following shows the crops raised in that field as fully as I 

 have been able to find them from the reports. 



