120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



judgment as to whether an underdrain is required, or whether the 

 coarse sand will answer alone. I prefer to use sand from a sand- 

 beach at the river, as water passes through it readily. After 

 draining such land, and it becomes settled and comparatively 

 hard, I find it for my interest to plow and cultivate it, for the pur- 

 pose of improving the qualify, as well as the quantify of the hay. 

 Farmers attempting such work must not be discouraged if it is 

 expensive, nor if it takes several years to make it productive. It 

 certainly will pay by and by. There is an acid, or something of 

 the kind, in most of such cold, mucky land, that is injurious to 

 vegetation ; but exposure to the atmosphere will remove it, al- 

 though sometimes it takes several years. 



For instance, — I had a small piece of swampy land, lying at the 

 foot of the bank, so wet and soft that I couid run a small pole into 

 it eight and ten feet very easily. After taking off the bushes, &c, 

 and ditching near the ridge so as to take away the spring water, I 

 sowed herdsgrass and fowl meadow seed, but it would not pro- 

 duce anything of value ;" I then top-dressed, and sowed on seed 

 with the same result ; the seed sprouted and came up, but it soon 

 withered and died. This was the second year after ditching. I 

 supposed I knew why the grass would not grow, and let the land 

 lie. The fourth year fowl meadow began to grow, and the fifth 

 year, I had a heavy crop of herdsgrass and fowl meadow, and the 

 land has produced bountifully ever since, which is seven or eight 

 years. 



The same is troe with some muck used as a fertilizer. Much 

 depends upon the location and surroundings of a muck bed. For 

 immediate use, as a fertilizer, muck taken from a bed or swamp 

 mostly surrounded by black growth, and no stream running 

 through it, is almost worthless, except as an absorbant, until it 

 has had the action of the atmosphere and frost for a year or so 

 after it is taken out. On the other hand, muck from a bed sur- 

 rounded mostly with hard wood growth and near a stream, makes 

 quite a good fertilizer for some land as soon as applied. But the 

 best way to use muck, is to put it dry into the barn-yard, hog 

 pen, &c, for an absorbant. 



Much good is derived b} T mixing soils, if properly done. The 

 most luxuriant growth of hay 1 ever saw was produced by mixing 







very fine sand and clay together in about equal parts, and spread- 

 ing the mixture on coarse gravel underlaid by clay. Neither of 

 the materials separately would have produced a single blade of 



