34 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



from drouth more severely than the adjoining upland. Such lands, it is 

 well known, may even take fire in a dry time and lose much of their value 

 by burning away. Probably the chief advantage possessed by swamp or 

 marsh lauds is their having generally a more abundant and more constant 

 water supply than the uplands. To conserve this supply of water is there- 

 fore impor-tant. and it is a point that needs to be considered at the time 

 of draining. Some swamps are so situated by the side of streams, or at 

 the foot of living springs, that moisture can at all times be maintained 

 within proper distance of the surface by means of ditches. I know also 

 of marshes in this state under a high state of cultivation which are 

 abundantly watered bj^ means of artesian wells. 



Concerning the fertility of lands composed chiefly of deep deposits of 

 muck, the early idea, based on their limitless supply of vegetable matter, 

 has had to be modified. It was at one time supposed that swamp muck 

 was in itself a fertilizer and desirable to use in large quantities on the 

 higher lands adjoining. But it is found that the benefit from the use of 

 muck in this manner is very slight, not repaying the trouble of applying 

 it, except when composted with barn yard or some other fermentable 

 manure. 



Recently it is being noticed that the productiveness of these muck lands 

 is less permanent than was at first supposed, in fact, that after growing 

 a few excellent crops the yield often declines in an alarming manner, 

 more rapidly, in fact, than on surrounding lands composed of the ordinary 

 soil materials. 



The question therefore of maintaining the fertility of these cultivated 

 swamps is a problem of immediate interest, the solution of which will 

 have an important bearing on the further development of such lands in 

 this state. So far, the only means employed to any considerable extent 

 for restoring the fertility of exhausted muck lands has been barn-yard 

 manure and, strange as it may perhaps appear considering its highly 

 vegetable and nitrogenous character, this has thus far given entirely 

 satisfactory results. But the application of this fertilizer is necessarily 

 limited and only practicable within reach of cities and villages. Careful 

 and extended trials of other fertilizers are needed. If the application of 

 lime, for example, to these lands shall prove as generally useful in our 

 climate as in the cooler and moister climate of Great Britain the presence 

 of the inexhaustible supply of this material within the state will prove 

 particularly fortunate. 



Another class of soils in our state, much less promising than these 

 muck swamps^ is found in the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula 

 and consists of extensive sandy plains, covering the larger part of several 

 counties and locally known as "pine barrens."' These lands have never 

 been heavily timbered and in recent years have been frequently traversed 

 by forest fires, so that but little humus or vegetable matter remains in the 

 soil. For ordinary farm crops they are in their present condition worth- 

 less, as hundreds of abandoned farms in this region, some of them well 

 fenced and with good buildings, too clearly testify. On some of these 

 lands huckleberries, blackberries and other wild fruits grow spontane- 

 ously, so that the cultivation of certain of the small fruits thereon would 

 seem to be suggested as a field for experiment. 



The tendency in the horticultural development of the state at the pres- 



