398 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 7 



est materials, and those best adapted to promote 

 vesetatiori. The first object in reclaiming such 

 places, and without which all other efforts will be 

 unavailing, is to free them from the surplus water. 

 To do this effectually relerence must be had to the 

 extent of the swamp, the quantity of water to be 

 thrown off, the declination of the surliice, the na- 

 tural outlets of the water, and the work of drain- 

 ing commenced on a scale commensurate with the 

 end to be effected. If the quantity of water to be 

 discharged is large, or if the swamp is liable to 

 inundations, the main drain should be open, and 

 of a size sufficiently large and deep tn allow the 

 water to flow ofi" freely and quickly. This, as the 

 main work, should be performed in the first place, 

 as it will greatly facilitate the determining of the 

 best place for side-drains, and aid in their forma- 

 tion. If the water of the swamp is furnished by 

 springs around the marfiin, a drain of a proper 

 depth and capacity should be run around the out-' 

 side, and connected with the main drain, and if 

 springs rise in the level part, particular reference 

 must always be had to these places in any plan of 

 draining. Unless the quantity of water to be car- 

 ried off is very large, all tlie drains e.xcept the 

 main one may be covered, and of course will form 

 no ohstruciion to cultivation. 



When, by draining, the surface is once dried, 

 the operation of freeing the surface from bushes, 

 bogs, and cnarse grasses, can be carried on at 

 pleasure. When the ground is firm enouch for 

 the use of the plough, the surfiice may be turned 

 carefully over, and the cultivated grasses, clover, 

 herds-grass, red-top, &c. sown with oats or other 

 spring grain, to form a new and fine turf for mow- 

 ing or grazing. Where the plouffh cannot be 

 used at first, the bushes and bogs can be extirpat- 

 ed with the hoe and grubber, and the cultivated 

 grasses sown in their stead. Potatoes are an ex- 

 cellent crop for reclaimed grounds, rendering the 

 surface fine, and putting il'in sood condition for 

 seeding. Swamps so reclaimed make the most 

 valuable meadows. There is another point of 

 view in which the great mass of vegetable mould 

 collected in swamps possesses a great interest for 

 the farmer. We have, in former numbers of the 

 Farmer, stated the great care and expense incur- 

 red in the European countries, in securing the 

 largest possible quantity of manure, by mixing 

 with the dung of their cattle, in their stables and 

 farm-vards, all the refuse straw, weeds, leaves, 

 washings of the highways, and all oiher vegeta- 

 ble and animal matter that could be collectedrthat 

 the whole might be used in enrichinsr the soil and 

 increasing the crops. As a deposit in the farm- 

 yard, nothing is found to exceed in value a cover- 

 ing of earth from a swamp. The custom in Bel- 

 gium and Germany, where such a resource is 

 available, is, when the yard is cleaned of manure 

 to cover it with fresh vegetable mould or swamp 

 earth, to the depth of a foot. This earth absorbs 

 the urine, the wash of the yard, the salts of the 

 manure, that would otherwise flow off and be lost, 

 and in the course of the season, or the year, be- 

 comes the most valuable and efficient of manures. 

 No farmer who understands his true interests, will 

 suffer the wash of his stables and yards to be lost, 

 and there is no way in which it is so eflectually 

 prevented, as by furnishing vegetable mould to 

 absorb it. 



With some farmers in this country who have 



adopted this mode of replenishing their cattle- 

 yards, the rule is to return to the yard a load of 

 swamp mud for every load of manure taken from 

 it to the field. As a top-dressing for meadows or 

 grass lands, this earth, impregnated with sails, is 

 unrivalled tijr promoting feriilily. Like all finely- 

 rotted manures, its effects are more prompt, and 

 energetic than those of common manures, but the 

 influence is not perhaps as durable. Instead, 

 therelbre, of considering a swamp as a useless 

 piece of ground, the farmer should look upon it as 

 a great magazine of vegetable mould ; capable, if 

 desired, of being converted into the best of ma- 

 nures; or if not required for this purpose, can be 

 made where it is, to produce the best of grasses, 

 and make the most productive of meadow-lands. 



From ttie Genesee Farmer. 

 CATTLE — DEVONSHIRE. 



While it may be affirmed with great truth, that 

 the present beautiful and superior breed of improv- 

 ed short horns are strictly artificial, and while 

 some fears may be justly entertained lest the valu- 

 able qualities for which they are so distinguished, 

 have not become so fully constitutional as to be 

 beyond the possibility of lapse, — we here bring to 

 the notice of the farmer, a breed of cattle, scarcely 

 inferior in quality to the short horns, and of which 

 no apprehensions can be entertained that the type 

 of these distinguishing qualities are evanescent, 

 and not durably incorporated in the constitution 

 and race. 



The north of Devon has long been celebrated 

 for a beautiful breed of cattle, in activity of work, 

 and aptitude to fatten unrivalled. The place 

 where they are found in tlie greatest perfection, is 

 in the vicinity of Portlock and Biddleford, along 

 the Bristol channel in the county of Devon. From 

 the earliest records the breed has here remained 

 the same, or if not quite as perfect in general as at 

 the present moment, yet altered in no essential 

 point until the last thirty years. No persevering 

 successful attempts to improve the general cha- 

 racter of British cattle were made until within 

 some fifty or sixty years ; and the Devonshire 

 farmers were so vvell satisfied with their herds 

 that they were about the last to dream that their 

 beautiful red cattle could be improved, and they did 

 not bestir themselves in earnest until the high 

 prices and improved forms of the Collings short 

 horns, convinced them that in estimating dieir ad- 

 vantages they were behind the age. 



The most perfect specimens of the Devon- 

 shire cattle are found among the North De- 

 vons, and it is of these we shall speak. As the 

 breed is of the middle horns the horns should 

 be neither too high or too low, those of the 

 bull tapering to the points, not very thick at 

 the base, and of a yellow or waxen color. The 

 eye should be clear, bright atjd prominent, show- 

 ing much of the white, and ought to have a circle 

 of a variat)le color, but usually of a dark orange 

 around it. The forehead should be flat, indented 

 and small, for by the smallness of the forehead 

 the purity of the blood is much estimated. The 

 cheek should be small and the muzzle fine, and 

 the nose should be of a clear yellow. The ox has 

 a small head, singularly so relatively to the bulk 



