SALT MARSHES. 17. 



overlooked, what means of providing food for man and beast are to 

 be found at our own doors and within our own domain, before we 

 go to the far West, or to the sunny South in pursuit of them. In 

 one respect we shall find scattered all along our sea board, salt 

 marshes, in lots varying from one acre to two thousand in a body. 

 Some of these marshes are over-flowed at every ebbing and flowing 

 of the tide, others only occasionally at high ru3 of tides. A large 

 proportion of them are in grass of the different varieties known 

 as salt grasses. Near the rivers, creeks and lower parts, a coarse, 

 flat grass called " thatch" grows, standing oftentimes as high as 

 a man's head. The tide usually flows where this grass grows, 

 every day. Next comes goose grass, fine thatch and fox grass, 

 where the tide does not so often flow, being a little higher* marsh 

 than the first named. Then comes the black grass and marsh 

 brown-top, mixed sparingly sometimes with other varieties. This 

 marsh is overflowed at high tides. The hay made from these 

 different grasses varies in saltness and quality as the land from 

 which they are cut recedes from, or rises above the tides. The 

 black grass and brown-top approaches nearest to upland hay, and 

 superior to any other hay cut on salt marsh. The quantity per 

 acre will vary from half a ton to four tons, thatch being the 

 heaviest crop. Besides these different grades of marsh where 

 grass grows, there are what are called "Flats "; some of them are 

 clam beds, some muscle beds, and mud. The soil of these marshes 

 are very similar, with the exception of the flats, the sward of the 

 higher portions being very tough and fibrous, and growing more 

 spongy till you come to the creeks, rivers and flats. From the 

 surface downwards it grows less tough and fibrous to the depth of 

 two or three feet, where the whole mass consists of thoroughly 

 decomposed vegetable and fibrous deposit and accumulation of 

 ages to the depth of ten, fifteen or twenty feet. Above what is 

 termed salt marsh, and bordering on the shores, coves and streams 

 adjacent to the salt marsh are quite large plats of semi-salt or fresh 

 marshes similar in soil, producing a kind of fresh grass. The tide 

 hardly ever flows over them. Thousands of acres of these marshes 

 such as have been described are the common heritage of our noble 

 State. Scattered all the way from Kittery Point to Quoddy Head ; 

 possessing inexhaustible supplies of food for vegetation, and if 

 reclaimed from the watery element, would produce luxuriant and' 

 bountiful harvests to the husbandman, as well as be a source of 

 beauty and delight to all lovers of the beautiful — equal in fertility 

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