364 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Although no general well-laid plan of improvements by 

 drainage has as yet, for well-known reasons, been put into 

 operation, the basis on which it ought to rest is duly appre- 

 ciated by many of the land-owners, and frequently acted upon 

 by individuals as far as their situation permits. Localized 

 impervious layers of soil beneath the surface have been 

 broken through, and the holes filled with coarse stones. 

 Ditches from two to three feet and one-half in depth have 

 been constructed to the nearest branches of the creek: 

 several hundred rods in length of these have been added 

 lately to those of previous years. To dilute the saline 

 subsoil waters, by raising the fresh water of the creek dur- 

 ing the spring to the full height of the level of the mead- 

 ows, and to discharge the mixture resulting subsequently 

 at low tide through the sluice-gate, a measure on a former 

 occasion recommended for that purpose is seriously thought 

 of, and will most likely be tried during the coming spring. 

 Whenever the marshes are left without any attempt at 

 improvement, either fox-grass or upland weeds cover the 

 ground. About four hundred acres, scattered throughout 

 the various sections of the marshes, have been cultivated 

 thus far, in one way or another : a portion of them is, how- 

 ever, still unproductive, comparatively speaking, for want 

 of drainage. Much of the lands but little exposed to a 

 periodical access of stagnant saline subsoil water have 

 yielded fairly when simply sown down with grass-seed 

 without a previous harrowing or ploughing ; although in 

 many instances, as might be expected, the seed did not 

 germinate before the second or third year. As the former 

 coarse and tough surface-growth has become more rotten, 

 and the harrow can be used more effectually, the belief that 

 the land can be brought into grass in an economical way, 

 by simply harrowing the old sod, generally prevails. 



Ploughing the land has for this reason made but little 

 progress. None, in fact, has been ploughed during the past 

 year, excepting an area of about twenty-five acres, which 

 had been ploughed for the first time three years ago, and 

 subsequently sown down with grain. Yielding, however, 

 indifferently, on account of an unfavorable coarse condition 

 of the turned-up sod, it was left without any further treat- 

 ment until the late autumn, when it was ploughed again 



