AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 129 



turer in the neighboring city, who converted them 

 into canes and umbrella handles, paying such a price 

 as more than refunded the cost of grubbing. The 

 wood was of course salable enough. 



Five months, from April to September, were oc 

 cupied in these various labors ; but though a hot 

 sun had been playing on the now exposed surface of 

 the swamp, causing an uninterrupted evaporation of 

 its moisture, yet in some places it was still too wet 

 to admit of hauling off all the wood, and that por 

 tion was left until a hard freeze the following winter. 

 Meantime the grubbing went on wherever a root 

 was found small enough to be extracted. Many 

 larger ones were of course left, the operation of 

 taking them out being too expensive for a beginner. 

 But vast piles of the smaller ones were collected 

 and used in filling up the old tortuous water-course, 

 while the dirt from the new ditch was wheeled over 

 planks to cover them, leaving the roots so far under 

 ground as to be below the reach of ordinary plough 

 ing. This operation secured two important advan 

 tages it cleared the new ditch of the embankments 

 thrown up on its margin in digging it, and it brought 

 up the old one to the surrounding level. By the 

 first, all the surface water was allowed to flow off, 

 as there could be no ponding or backing where no 

 bank existed. By the last, a huge, crooked gully 

 was converted into fast land. 



But the work was not yet done. Cross drains 

 were to be dug from the main ditch, on both its 

 sides, extending to the adjoining upland. So far 

 there had been no proper time to do this, as all such 



