136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



shovelful of meadow muck with another of dark-colored loam 

 and the two mixed with one of manure, they will have three 

 shovelfuls of manure, equal in value to the last. Let us 

 not deceive ourselves ; something cannot be derived from 

 nothing. 



We may work over and manipulate the substances on our 

 farms as much as we choose, but we can no more make one 

 particle of plant-food than we can add a cubit to our stature. 

 Gather all the refuse that accumulates and save it with the ut- 

 most care ; neither should the smallest amount of liquid manure 

 be allowed to run to waste for the want of a proper absorbent. 

 To this end it may be economy to cart soil or muck thrown 

 from the ditches to the yards and barn cellars. But I have 

 been forced to believe that many times the farmer gets small 

 returns for the unsightly holes in his low lands, dug merely 

 to get muck for compost. As a matter of ease and economy 

 I take my manure as soon as convenient to the fields where 

 it is to be applied and there spend my labor composting it 

 with the first few inches of the surface soil. By this method 

 we not only call to our aid the newly invented pulverizing 

 machinery, but we have the influence of the sun's rays, to- 

 gether with all the atmospheric and aqueous influences. 



On many farms there are waste low lands producing only 

 bushes and coarse grasses that when properly treated will be 

 found abounding in the rich accumulation of centuries, wait- 

 ing only for the intelligent outlay of capital. iSuch acres 

 need draining and cultivating. 



I have been led to go even lower down into the very bogs 

 and marshes. And it has been with no little degree of sat- 

 isfaction that I have the two past winters driven choice loads 

 of hay to market that grew on bottom land where but two 

 years before I was compelled to carry ofi" the coarse and in- 

 ferior yield upon hay poles. 



In reclaiming such land ample provision must be made 

 for the speedy escape of all water, both from covered drains 

 and ditches, and the utmost care must be exercised to secure 

 a proper arrangement as well as uniform inclination of all 

 tiles and drains. 



Before seeding, the ground must be properly graded that 

 water shall not stand in low places, and all species of wild 



