RECLAIMING BOG LANDS. 121 



grass. The same is true in regard to top-dressing, almost any- 

 thing spread on grass land will improve the crop, — the better the 

 material, the better the result; bnt one cannot raise a good quality 

 of hay on a cold, wet soil, without first ditching and taking oil' the 

 water. I find in ditching my mucky land, that the water does not 

 mix with the muck. If water gets on a muck bed it remains a 

 long time, unless taken away by ditching or evaporation. It will 

 not readily soak through the mud ; hence the necessity of keeping 

 out spring waiter. I can dig muck in wet weather as well as in 

 dry, if the surface water is kept out of the way. I also find all 

 my muck beds underlaid with a very fine bluish compact sand, 

 filled more or less with small particles of charcoal. This stratum 

 of sand is from six to eighteen inches thick, and often so hard as to 

 require a pick to remove it, and is almost impervious to water. 



In some places, much of the time and labor expended in ditch- 

 ing, may be saved by digging through this stratum of find sand, 

 and letting the water up that had to find vent in other places many 

 rods away. I have a low, sunken swamp, on the upland near my 

 buildings, of six or eight acres. A small brook ran into it, but 

 there was no channel through, and it was always very wet. It 

 was surrounded by a growth of evergreens. At the lower end I 

 built a dam sufficiently high to flow the whole, and covered it with 

 water, and kept it so five or six years, until all the growth was 

 killed. After taking off. the timber, wood, &c, (cutting close to 

 the ice,) I drew off the water, and in a few years the bog cran- 

 berry came in and covered most of the swamp, producing abun- 

 dantly. Water moss then came in and grew eight and ten inches 

 high, and covered most of the swamp. I let it remain in that con- 

 dition for several years. Then, wanting to get muck from the 

 upper end, but being unable on account of its wetness, I dug a, 

 ditch through it lengthwise three feet deep, connecting it with the 

 brook above, which thoroughly drained one-half of the swamp, 

 (no springs coming in from that side.) The cranberries and moss 

 soon died out on the dry side, and alders, willows, &c, began to 

 come in, but grew slowly for three or four years. Then the foli- 

 age put on a new color, and wherever permitted to remain have 

 grown very rapidly since. On the wet side of the ditch, which is 

 quite springy, the cranberries and moss continue to grow, and 

 bushes are working in slowly. I find the same acid to contend 

 with as in the cold, wet land adjoining my interval. 



I now have a very good and convenient muck bed on "the dry 



