CROPS ON RECLAIMED MARSH. 255 



was consequently very unsatisfactory, and the seeding very 

 imperfect. In other instances, no proper care had been taken 

 to support the ploughing by a previous efficient under-drain- 

 ing. The presence of highly saline subsoil waters, raised in 

 consequence of rains considerably above their level during 

 the preceding seasons, either prevented entirely the germina- 

 tion of the seeds, or produced a sickly vegetation . The sur- 

 face mass upon some of the ploughed lands, still largely im- 

 pregnated with saline waters, has become compact and hard. 

 Muph of the unploughed and well-drained lands can now be 

 well pulverized by harrowing for the cultivation of grass and 

 grains. Bradley's Reversible Harrow is usually used for that 

 purpose. One of the best pieces of grass and of oats — eight 

 acres of the former, and five acres of the latter — was 

 raised upon lands, after simply harrowing the surface before 

 seeding. The risks incurred by sowing directly upon the old 

 sod, without any previous harrowing or ploughing, as circum- 

 stances may advise, is well illustrated by the fact, that, in 

 several instances during the past summer, good hay-crops, in 

 some cases two tons and a half per acre, have been harvested 

 upon lands seeded down in 1875, and which showed scarcely 

 any grass in 1876. One party raised in that way about 

 twenty-five tons from seeds he considered lost. The 

 ploughed lands have been chiefly used for grain and culti- 

 vated crops ; the harrowed lands, for grass. 



Among the grain-crops, oats and rye, and of the grasses 

 red-top, have been the most successful crops during the 

 past season. A careful approximate estimate of the amount 

 of some of the leading crops grown during the past year 

 shows the following results : — 



One hundred and twenty tons of hay. 



Eight hundred and thirty bushels of oats. 



Three hundred and fifty bushels of rye. 



Two hundred and sixty bushels of shelled corn. 



Somewhat over one hundred bushels of superior potatoes : 

 they were large and smooth. The first premium awarded 

 to potatoes at the late Marshfield Agricultural Fair was 

 given on those raised upon the reclaimed marsh-lands. 

 Three-quarters of an acre produced one hundred bushels of 

 potatoes. 



Garden-crops of various descriptions have also been raised 



