•60 



the lieij^'lit of the dam as it now exists, and it is tliirteen feet from the bottom of 

 liie ditch to the top of the dam. 



The land that has been reclaimed from the swamp is a black vegetable mould 

 that is very productive. Several wells have been made in the reclaimed land that 

 furnisli a strong How of sulphur water, at a dejith of four to six feet, out of a pure 

 white sand. The soil is very porous, where it seems perfectly dry, water will soon 

 fill your tracks, and the furrows made by the plow fill with water by the time the 

 farmer can make a second round. 



In traveling along the roads the existence of former swamps are very plainly 

 seen. The soil is a grayish or white clay. The decayed vegetable matter in the 

 swamps made a black soil which contrasts strongly with the white clay. Some 

 farms are, however, all black soil. The amount of this soil always determines 

 the value of the land. 



The big swamj) of late years has completely drie<l during the long continued 

 droughts, as to the surface appearances, but a stick stuck in the soft loose soil 

 -comes out wet, and the hole soon fills with water. The old settlers say that 

 numerous fish could be taken from it during the spring months, when there was 

 plenty of water, and that a tall coarse grass covered it entire during the summer. 

 In the fall, when the grass was dead, it was often fired, when it would burn for 

 weeks at a time, burning great holes in the ground about the edges of the swamp. 

 This swamp is undoubtedly of glacial origin, and formerly extended over more or 

 less of Bath Township. It has been the home of the beaver. It is underlaid with 

 pure white sand and furnishes abundance of sulphur water. Man has labored for 

 seventy years to redeem it, and has almost conquered, making the wilderness 

 blossom as the rose. 



Watkh CiLTURK Methods With In])Igenoi's Plants. P>v D. T. MacDougai.. 



During the course of some extended experiments relative to the general 

 nature and functions of the tuberous formations on the roots of Isopyrum it was 

 found impossible to secure a normal development of this hardy plant in pots witli 

 customary greenhouse temperature. An examination of the habit of the plant 

 reveals the fact that it starts into active growth at the close of the winter season, 

 when the soil is scarcely above the freezing point, and by the aid of a few days of 

 \v:arm sunshine atcomplishes its yearly growth, <luring a period when the diflFerence 

 between the soil and air temperature is greatest. The amount of such difference 

 between the soil of a northern hillside and the air in .\j)ril and May, the growing 

 period of the plant, is very great in this latittide, 45°. Willi such facts in hand 



