170 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



sheep treading on it. Such an operation is, however, better for the marsh 

 than it is for the sheep. It is not a good plan to plow your marshes expect- 

 ing thus to make them smooth and compact, until they have been in grass 

 sufficiently long to become compacted. More failures have been made by 

 plowing marshes at once after draining than by any other cause. If sowed 

 to grain at once there is likely to be one or two failures before the soil is 

 sufficiently compact. Grass will do well from the start. After a few years 

 the muck can be plowed and it will produce in time grain as good in quan- 

 tity and quality as the remainder of your place. 



In conclusion, I would say that if you wish to improve your muck swamps 

 the essential is drainage — not merely providing for the escape of the surplus 

 water — but deep and thorough drainage. Experience has amply proved that 

 no course of cropping, of cultivation, or even of fertilizing, is a substitute 

 for draining. While on the other hand numerous cases attest that drainage 

 alone will, in time, convert your worthless swamps into land fitted for the 

 finest meadow, and even in longer time may make the swamp lands suitable 

 for any kind of grain. 



I do not know of a single case of failure to improve muck land where the 

 essential drainage was first well done, and then made permanent ; but I do 

 know of numerous cases where cultivation of swamp land, without thorough 

 drainage, has resulted only in loss. 



President Willits: Does drainage ever hurt land? 



Prof. Carpenter : No. The first effect is to leave it very light and porous, 

 but in a few years it settles down and becomes compact. 



President Willits : Will drainage put swamp lands in greater danger from 

 fire? 



Prof. Carpenter: Swamps will burn with or without drainage if the sur- 

 face dries. Fire does much hurt to a marsh. 



President Alward : Is muck good to apply to other land? 



Prof. Carpenter: I would rather leave the muck in its original place and 

 make soil of it by drainage. 



Prof. Johnson : Muck is good to compost with barn-yard manure. 



President Willits: In Monroe county there were pockets of muck in 

 sandy fields, which were drained and then by scrapers drawn off to the sandy 

 parts and the sand brought back on to the muck, and thus the fields were 

 leveled and both parts of the land improved. 



The great cause of disappointment in draining marshes is plowing too soon 

 after draining. It should be sown to grass and left to settle for years before 

 plowing. I have seen marshes that grew nothing but sedge produce If tons 

 of red top simply after drainage and seeding. 



Mr. A. Clark, Secretary West Michigan Farmers' Club : These professors 

 have given us the theory of drainage. Now if they will tell us how to get a 

 drainage law that will hold water, so to speak, they will help us still farther. 

 My soil is heavy clay. I find drainage unquestionably desirable, but at present 

 cost of tile, too great. Can we get tile cheaper? Can we not in our 

 Granges and farmers' organizations devise means of cheapening these 

 things which we see to be so desirable for our farms? 



Mr. Graham said he drained a muck swamp, but the crops though growing 

 well did not mature. 



Prof. Carpenter: The symptoms indicate more water than the crops 

 could stand. We found wheat least easy to grow on muck. 



