MAESH-LANDS FOR AGRICULTURE 333 



and in large metal tanks. The tanks were so made that upon reaching the 

 terminus they were taken up by machinery, carried out by an overhead trolley 

 line, and by machinery dumped at a given spot. In this way some hundreds 

 of acres of salt marsh were covered with a 12-foot layer of the contents of the 

 ash barrels of Brooklyn. The layer was packed down by water and contained so 

 much organic matter that almost immediately grass and sun flowers began to 

 grow. At the end of the second year enough soil had formed so that Italians had 

 begun to plant cabbages and other vegetables. 



" The Government is taking up the subject of reclamation of swamp lands 

 through its Eeclamation Service, and extensive surveys are being made by the 

 United States Geological Survey. Under the United States Department of 

 Agriculture appropriations have been made for some years to enable the Secre- 

 tary of x\griculture to investigate and report upon the drainage of swamps and 

 other wet lands and to prepare plans for the removal of surplus waters by 

 drainage. 



" A number of interesting and important publications have already been 

 issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, two of which are of 

 general interest, namely. Circular No. 74, Office of Experiment Stations, Ex- 

 cavating Machinery Used for Digging Ditches and Building Levees, by J. 0. 

 Wright (pp. 40, figs. 16) ; and Circular No. 76, Office of Experiment Stations, 

 The Swamp and Overflowed Lands of the United States, by J. 0. Wright (pp. 

 23, pi. 1). The first of these publications described the use and construction of 

 diiferent classes of dredges, including dipper, clam-shell, rotary, roller, scraper, 

 elevator, and hydraulic dredges, and drag boats ; first cost and cost of operation 

 of dredges ; machines for building levees ; machine for tile ditching. The second 

 gives an estimate of the area of swamp lands in the different States, its owner- 

 ship, present value, cost of reclamation, and probable value when reclaimed, 

 and discusses the state laws relating to drainage. It is shown in the latter 

 circular that there are in the United States 119,972 square miles of swamp lands, 

 an area which, collected together, would be as large as England, Ireland, Scot- 

 land and Wales together, or larger than the six New England States, New York 

 and the northern half of New Jersey. It would make a strip 133 miles wide 

 reaching from New York to Chicago. Not all of this swamp land, however, is 

 suited for agriculture, but from the data collected by the Office of Experiment 

 Stations of the United States Department of Agriculture, it seems certain that 

 in the eastern portion of the United States there are 77,000,000 acres that can be 

 reclaimed and made fit for cultivation by the building of simple engineering 

 structures. It is a noticeable and significant fact that 95 per cent of this entire 

 area is held in private o'wnership. The following paragraphs taken from this 

 Circular No. 76 express the desirability of such drainage from the monetary 

 point of view in very forcible terms : 



" ' There is no question as to the fertility of swamp or overflowed land, and 

 when it is protected by embanlnnents to keep out the overflow and is relieved 

 of the excess of water by proper drainage its productiveness is unexcelled. In 

 nearly every one of the States large areas of similar lands have been reclaimed 

 by draining and embanking and have proven to be the most productive farm 

 lands in the districts in which they are located. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and 

 southern Louisiana have taken the lead in work of this kind, and in no other 

 part of the country do we find more profitable or higher-priced farms than in 

 those States. Along the Atlantic coast sufficient work has been done to indicate 

 that the vast extent of salt marsh reaching from Maine to Florida can by 

 proper methods be won to agriculture, and when reclaimed the soils are especially 

 adapted to market gardening. 



