1897.] The Swamps of Oswego County, N. Y. 799 



in the air is maintained by tlie extensive surface of tlie sphag- 

 nous moss from which it steadily evaporates great quantities of 

 water. Many plants, especially the delicate orchids, are found 

 only in the moss. The humidity of the air immediately at the 

 surface of the moss at once suggests the conditions in the trop- 

 ics where the epiphytic orchids thrive. 



COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE BOGS. 



The capacity of the moss to hold moisture and the evenness 

 and freedom with which it gives it up, has led to its extenstve 

 use in packing the roots of plants during shipment. In the 

 Lily Marsh and Mud Lake in Oswego township, the moss has 

 been removed from a large part of the moors. The effect upon 

 the bog itself is anything but wholesome. By this treatment 

 a clean, mossy moor is turned into a stinking, sour, unsightly 

 and treacherous mud-hole. Nowhere did I ever see such vio- 

 lence done to nature as where the moss is removed from a 

 moor. The traditional woodman's axe does not compare ; a 

 burnt forest soon recovers itself to a certain extent ; but a bog 

 from which the moss has been taken reclothes itself very 

 slowly, and will probably never become a thick turf as origin- 

 ally. Certainly none of the rarer plants will endure such 

 treatment. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



1. Swamps form one of the striking and important topo- 

 graphical features of Oswego County. 



2. These may consist of a lake, a moor and a wooded belt ; 

 but in many the lake has been converted into a moor, and in 

 others both lake and moor have passed over into wooded tracts. 



3. The surface of the county was fluted by the ice; this de- 

 termines the outline of all the swamps. 



4. The finely pulverized remains of plants (mud) are stirred 

 up with every wind, so that material is constantly shifted from 

 the muddy shores to deeper water. 



5. The agitation of the water l)y the wind has two import- 

 ant influences on the shore: its violence prevents sphagnum 

 from growing at the water's edge ; Cassandra, sedges and De- 

 codon, with others, form a barrier at the edge; second, it pre- 



