DRAINING A SWAMP. 295 



unnecessary, which, if of a more tenacious character, would 

 have been necessary. Third, the ditch across the peat-mead- 

 ow (which was more compact and tenacious) to the box- 

 drain, filled to within two feet of the surface with brush 

 (which, being always wet, will not decay), took the place of 

 a large quantity of meadow-mud suitable for composting, 

 and at the same time made an efficient drain at small cost, 

 as the contents of the ditch were worth more than the cost 

 of digging. 



The above-mentioned improvement was made by Horace 

 Ware, a practical farmer of Marblehead. Three years ago 

 he purchased a part of a farm containing another pond of 

 three acres, surrounded by a swamp varying from one to two 

 hundred feet in width, covered with trees and bushes, except 

 on the side where a small stream or ditch emptied into the 

 pond, after running through a piece of swamp-land contain- 

 ing about two acres, covered with coarse rushes and small 

 bushes. The outlet of the pond was over a gravelly bar. 

 The improvement of this swamp was begun by digging 

 through the bar to a sufficient depth to lower the water of 

 the pond about three feet, leaving a margin of flats around 

 the pond, as before, of ten or twenty feet in width. The 

 trees were cut into cord-wood ; the bushes cut and burned ; 

 and the stumps and clumps of brush-roots were dug up, and 

 tumbled into the margin of the pond, to increase the breadth 

 of land. A box-drain was placed in the inlet running 

 through the two-acre portion of the swamp, deep enough to 

 be covered two feet. This portion of the swamp, after the 

 small bushes were mowed, was ploughed by attaching a 

 rope long enough to allow the four-ox team to be driven 

 on the high land ; at the end of each furrow the plough was 

 carried by three men back across the swamp for the next 

 furrow : in this way, with a large plough, it was completely 

 ploughed. 



The next winter, gravel was carted from a bank near, and. 

 spread on three inches deep ; and ten or twelve cords of 

 manure per acre were carted on. The next season it was 

 sowed with mangel-wurzels, which produced a crop of sixty 

 tons per acre, worth enough to pay for all that the whole 

 improvement had cost, including the cost of cultivating the 

 crop. The land, after harvesting the mangolds, was laid 



