20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



which you have to make your dyke ; and the cost of keeping up or 

 repairing, will depend altogether upon the pressure to which your 

 dyke is subjected. The advantages of dyking marsh to us can 

 scarcely be estimated. Without it we could not rent it. Our 

 marsh is not worth anything before it is dyked. A kind of salt 

 grass grows upon it, but it is so covered with a muddy sediment 

 deposited by the tide waters, that it is not worth saving. The 

 soil is of two kinds — the one blue, the other red. The dykes are 

 made of this soil thrown up with spades. The first cost of making 

 dykes with us was from twenty-five to fifty dollars per square rod ; 

 and about the same per acre to keep it in repair. I spoke of the 

 blue and red soil. The one grows English hay, timothy, clover, 

 couch ; the other a kind of broad leaf grass which gives the marsh 

 its name — broad leaf marsh. This broad leaf hay is not shipped, 

 but used for home consumption ; worth five dollars per ton ; the 

 English, ten dollars. Marsh worth from thirty to forty dollars 

 per acre for broad leaf marsh ; and the English from sixty to 

 one hundred dollars." W. B. Smith of Machias, says: 



"The whole quantity of Salt Marsh in this town, Marshfield, 

 East Machias and Machiasport, all of which towns were comprised 

 in the original township of Machias, I estimate to be about five 

 hundred acres. Of this, some four hundred acres are dyked. The 

 largest portion of the dyked marsh is in one body, and lies on the 

 shores of Middle river, a small branch of the Machias West river, 

 and contains three hundred and thirty acres. The dyke enclosing 

 this tract crosses Middle river near its mouth. It is ninety-three 

 rods long. It was commenced in 1866, and finished the following 

 year. In the deepest place this dyke is twenty-two feet in height. 

 This depth is where it crosses the channel of the river, and 

 extends some twenty rods. The remaining portion of the dyke as 

 it approaches the shores, averages about eight or ten feet. The 

 base of the dyke, in the widest place, is nearly fifty feet, 

 narrowing as it runs shoreward from the channel to an average of 

 fifteen feet. On top, this dyke varies from two to three feet. The 

 main material of the dyke is composed of clay brought from the 

 adjoining shore, intermixed in some places with layers of green 

 boughs and small trees of fir and spruce. But little of marsh sods 

 or mud was used. The contract price for building was $15,000. 

 I presume it must have cost the contractor more. There is a fresh 

 water stream running through this tract, which is sufiicient to 



