6 



be prohibitive the land may be flooded to any depth and that depth 

 "maintained. Reclamation in this way is successfully carried on, but- 

 only water-loving crops can be grown during the sweetening process. 



CULTIVATION OF MARSH. 



After the land has been diked and ditched the best method of culti- 

 vation must be settled upon. If the soil is a tidal mud or silt, without 

 a covering of any kind, the cultivation can be commenced at once or 

 at least as soon as part of the salt is leached out. A great variety of 

 crops is adapted to such soils. Cleaning the land of all weed seed and 

 giving it an opportunity to be thoroughly aerated and weathered, by 

 planting for one or two years some cultivated crop, such as corn or sor- 

 ghum, is recommended. After that time, the best crop to select is one 

 suited to the locality ; whether it be truck, hay, cabbage, celery, or small 

 fruits will depend on the market and taste of the cultivator. 



If, however, the tidal silt or mud, or eel-grass clay, as it is generally 

 known, is not at the surface, but is covered by a sod formed of the 

 partly decayed stems and roots of the salt grasses, a very different 

 method of treatment is necessary in order to get the soil in condition 

 to cultivate. If this sod is thin and well rotted, disking, deep plowing, 

 and thorough cultivation will generally break it up and enable a good 

 seed bed to be prepared ; but when it is a foot or more deep, and is in turn 

 underlain by half decomposed sod for a depth of a foot or two, the 

 breaking up and incorporation with the underlying soil in a short time 

 by cultivation are impossible. The best method of subduing such soil 

 is to burn off the sod. When it is fairly dry to a depth of 12 inches 

 fires should be started at a number of places and the sod allowed to 

 slowly smoulder. The burning should be carried on until the eel-grass 

 clay is close to the surface, or until the heavy roots are consumed. 

 Then by rolling and plowing the soil can be worked into condition. 

 Burning was formerly a practice in common use in European agricul- 

 ture, and is yet continued in the marsh soils of northern Germany, 

 Denmark, and Holland. The smoke of this burning is said at times- 

 to be noticeable as far as Italy. The sod is there burned to a depth of 

 10 or 12 inches only, and is then cultivated for from five to ten years 

 and burned again. 



Such a practice will in time burn the entire peat of the swamps and 

 leave the underlying soil bare. The practice is \ery prodigal of organic 

 matter and is not to be recommended in America, especially since there 

 are crops which grow to best advantage in peat. In celery areas, 

 where such peaty soils are handled, burning is not the usual practice ; 

 in fact, the organic matter is the desirable part of the soil for the pro- 

 duction of celerj*. In such areas some cultivated crop is planted for 

 one or two years to give the peat an opportunity to decay. Rather 



