14:6 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 



a most luxuriant growth. It could hardly be other 

 wise, as it was pure vegetable fibre in a state of 

 decay. Some professional florists who visited my 

 premises, and examined this great muck-heap, ex 

 pressed their admiration of its richness. It was the 

 very material to obtain which they were compelled 

 to send many miles, and without which it would be 

 scarcely possible for them to prosecute their busi 

 ness. I could have readily sold it for more money 

 than the whole improvement of the three acres of 

 meadow cost me. This experience is cited as one 

 of the forms in which the reclaiming of a swamp 

 will return immediate compensation. 



The abundance of swamp lands in this country 

 having been referred to, it may be of some interest 

 to give such figures in relation to the subject as may 

 be relied on. There are no statistics showing how 

 many acres the whole Union contains ; but some 

 idea may be gathered from the legislation which 

 has been had in Congress when coming to dispose 

 of them. The first statute which dealt with this 

 interest was the law of 1849, in relation to Louisi 

 ana, a large extent of whose territory was annually 

 overflowed. Along the Mississippi the alluvial 

 margin- is from one to two miles wide; and to pre 

 vent the inundation from that river, an artificial 

 embankment or levee system had been adopted, 

 extending, on the east side of the river, from forty 

 miles below New Orleans to a distance up the 

 river of a hundred and eighty miles, and on the 

 west side generally to the boundary of Arkansas. 



To aid Louisiana in constructing the necessary 



