RECLAIMING WASTE LANDS. 327 



ated by a change in the character of the lands we use, by a 

 greater variety in the crops we cultivate, and a more constant 

 attention to the effect on the soil of change in plant production. 

 As a general rule, from the first settlement to the present time, 

 the lands which have been most sought for and prized for culti- 

 vation, have been the alluvial, the dry plains and slopes, and 

 the hills. Wet lands, not simply swamps, but those made 

 sterile, or producing nearly worthless plants, in consequence 

 of want of draining, though rich in all the elements of fertility, 

 have been almost universally rejected for cultivation. Our 

 agricultural society continually offers premiums for reclaiming 

 these lands, and sometimes has them to pay, yet the great mass 

 of our farmers are indifferent to improvement in this direction. 

 Necessity has compelled to the abandonment of some of the 

 former class of lands, but now, as a wise and intelligent system 

 of management, thousands of acres of this area should be 

 planted or allowed to go to forest, and judiciously cared for as 

 such. It would be a profitable operation in itself, and have a 

 beneficial influence on the lands in cultivation. This loss of 

 land for any of the objects of agriculture, would be more than 

 compensated by systematic, intelligent labor, directed to bring- 

 ing our wet, water-poisoned lands into a condition for the pro- 

 duction of all crops by draining. In some localities it would 

 be better for a farmer to emigrate, and buy dry land for his til- 

 lage rather than to drain, but our circumstances are such that 

 we can afford to drain ; in fact, we cannot afford to do otherwise. 



The average value of all our farm lands in 1870, — the good, 

 bad and indifferent, — was $49 per acre. But good lands for 

 cultivation are worth from $1 to $300 per acre. We have 

 thousands of acres now practically useless for cultivation, which 

 if underdrained at an expense of $75 per acre, would be as 

 good for every crop we grow as our best tillage lands. When 

 our farmers make these changes in the lands they cultivate, it 

 will be a long stride in the march of improvement. 



That standard fruit, the apple, is cultivated by us to a fair ex- 

 tent, but pears and the small fruits, as market products, are al- 

 most unknown. We have good markets for such crops within 

 easy reach, but do not supply them ; but, on the other hand, 

 our people, farmers and all, make a market by consuming these 

 fruits of foreign production. Our soil and climate are adapted 



