22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



five acres of salt marsh, costing- in 1858 $1.25 per square rod. It 

 would cost much more now. Width at bottom, seven feet ; at top, 

 three feet ; material used, marsh ; height, three to four feet, 

 according to elevation of marsh. There are two streams of fresh 

 water running' through it, regulated by gates. Before being dyked 

 the upper part bore no grass of any consequence — the lower parts 

 grew fox grass, and sampore or goose grass — nearly valueless. 

 After being dyked, the grass resembles brown-top mixed with 

 herds and witch grass. The quantity is quadrupled, and quality 

 much improved ; good hay for stock ; value of marsh quadrupled ; 

 soil, tough — marshy ; have not cultivated anything but grass on 

 it. There are, including mine, about forty acres in town dyked — 

 about two himdred not dyked. None dyked in Wells that I know 

 of; and from six hundred to seven hundred acres not dyked." 



At Old Orchard in Saco, there are about thirty acres dyked. I 

 saw the crop of grass on it in 1868, a short time before it was cut. 

 On some parts of it, where it was hardly worth cutting before it 

 was dyked, — as I was informed by one of the owners with me — 

 and that of poor quality, stood a heavy crop of marsh brown-top 

 and black grass of good quality, and the whole lot was looking 

 extremely well. The improvement in this lot has been so great, 

 that ellbrts are now making to dyke the whole of the Old Orchard 

 marsh, containing in the neighborhood of five hundred acres. 



Many years ago. Dr. Southgate of Scarboro', dyked a large 

 piece of the Scarboro' marsh. The quality and quantity of the 

 grass Mrere very much improved. On some parts of it he carted 

 clay, and mixed it with the soil, and sowed it with herds grass 

 and clover with oats. It is said by the oldest inhabitants in that 

 vicinity, that such oats and grass they never saw grow before. 

 On some parts too of the dyked marsh he planted his garden 

 vegetables, which succeeded well. But the dyke not being built 

 sufficiently strong to resist the pressure of extraordinai'ily high 

 tides, it was broken and never repaired. In the town of Scarboro', 

 there are about two thousand acres of salt marsh, besides a large 

 amount of fresh marsh adjoining, which would be quite as much 

 improved as the salt marsh by dyking. The P. S. & P. Railroad 

 passes through or over it. By using the railroad as a dyke, and 

 putting water gates into the fresh water stream, the salt water 

 would be most eflectually shut out from about seven hundred acres 

 of marsh. 



Tliere is another consideration of much importance, why these 



