544 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 9 



full of holes, and the nose and jaw broke out into 

 dreadful sores. Medical aid was called in, but the 

 gentleman who attended was unable to tell the 

 nature of the disease. On Wednesday week de- 

 ceased was conveyed in a cab to Sir Astley Coop- 

 er, who examined him, and pronounced it to be 

 the jrlanders, caught irom a hoise. The de- 

 ceased's medical attendant subsequently fell in 

 with his opinion; but all remedies were found of 

 no avail. The unfortunate man gradually be- 

 came worse, and entirely insensible. In the space 

 of two days his nose iell from his face, and his 

 eyes became like a colander, both emitting a thick 

 mucous running. He, however, about a quarter 

 of an hour before his death, which took place on 

 Thursday evening, recovered his senses, and 

 stated that he had got his death by wiping the 

 horse which was glandered with his pocket hand- 

 kerchief, and then incautiously using the same to 

 wipe his own nose. He expired in the most ex- 

 crutiating agony. The jury returned a verdict 

 "That the deceased died from glanders accidental- 

 ly caught from a horse, of which he was the 

 driver." — London Paper. 



SINKING OF DRAINED SWAMP LAND. 



[The following is an interesting account of the 

 linking, as it is called, but which is more properly 

 the rotting away of vegetable soil, after its being 

 dried and cultivated. The intelligent writer did 

 ■not seem to be fully aware of the cause and man- 

 ner ot the disappearance of bis soil. Before drain- 

 ling, ior cultivation, any marsh or swamp, the un- 

 dertaker should examine carefully the quality and 

 •chemical composition of the soil, so as to know 

 whether it is of vegetable, putrescent, and there- 

 fore perishable matter, or sufficiently earthy to be 

 permanent. Especially should this important 

 point be settled before undertaking such great and 

 •expensive, and yet we hope most valuable and 

 profitable public works, as the drainage of the 

 immense body of swamp lands belonging to the 

 Commonwealth of North Carolina, as ordered by 

 the legislature. — Ed. Farm. Reg. 



From tlie American Farmer. 



Poplar Grove, St. Paul's, > 

 South Carolina, May 20, 1823. 5 

 To the Editor — A correspondent in one of your 

 late numbers, ask for information through the me- 

 dium of your paper, relative to the reclamation o.'" 

 marsh land, which is covered with a heavy growth 

 of trees — such as ash, maple and gum. He says, 

 that an impression exists in his neighborhood, 

 where large bodies of that land are 1o be met 

 with, that woodland marsh, when reclaimed, 

 will sink more than that which is free from wood. 

 If any conclusive experiment has been made of 

 this kind of marsh, I should be pleased to know 

 the result ; when convenient, if you will make the 

 inquiries, to obtain information on the subject, I 

 shall be obliged to you. As I have derived much 

 instruction, and received a great deal of pleasure 

 from the pesusal of your interesting paper, I will 



lay before you the result of an experiment, which 

 ! think will be conclusive to the mind of your cor- 

 respondent, that I have made upon two hundred 

 acres of marsh land, which was once as heavily 

 wooded with cypress trees, as perhaps any swamp 

 in Carolina ; and of which 1 gave you some litde 

 account in Vol. 2, No. 44. 



My plantation is so situated, that at the lower 

 extremity, where I formerly embanked about two 

 hundred acres, the tide-water is generally brack- 

 ish, and oftentimes salt. It is so embodied with 

 the old rice fields, that in order to supply it with 

 the quantity of water necessary (or the cultivation 

 of rice, I dug a canal of twenty feet wide, and four 

 miles long, entering the creek where the tide 

 ceases to flow, and where from the drainings of a 

 swamp many miles in extent, it is generally fresh ; 

 from whence at the flood tide my rice fields are 

 supplied, and assisted in a drought by a long re- 

 servoir of water. The beautiful level appearance 

 all alluvial soils exhibit to the eye, connected with 

 its natural richness, induced me, about the years 

 1793 and 1794, to commence the undertaking, and 

 which I have never had reason to repent. After 

 many laborious and ineffectual attempts to get rid 

 of the rushes, and turn up the land with ploughs 

 and hoes, I became almost disheartened, being at 

 a loss in what manner to proceed to effect pulveri- 

 zation, without which, the scheme must prove 

 abortive. It occurred to me, that notwithstanding 

 my ditches were dug three leet deep, there yet re- 

 mained too much sobbiness in the land, to allow 

 the successful operation of the plough. Satisfied 

 of that fact, I dug up my river trunks, and re- 

 placed them at six inches above low watermark, 

 sunk the ditches to the depth of five feet, and 

 struck quarter acre drains about three feet deep. 

 The effect was visible in the course of a few 

 months ; the rushes being deprived of that nou- 

 rishment, they had been accustomed to receive 

 li-om the sobby state of the land, died away. A 

 fire was then applied on a windy day, which con- 

 sumed them. The plough and hoes were again 

 resumed, and I had the satisfaction of seeing the 

 work progress. The land having now assumed a 

 light husky appearance, very much resembling 

 the peat morasses in Scotland, was thrown into 

 large potato, or corn beds. In a short time a fire 

 was again applied, which burnt them smooth to 

 the ground, leaving ashes of a red color. It was 

 repeated during the course of the winter, and in 

 the spring, partial crops of corn, oats, barley and 

 rye were planted upon a small scale, all of which 

 failed. Perseverance, however, in tillage, and at- 

 tention to the depth of my ditches, at length over- 

 came all these discouraging results; the land, in 

 due time, produced rice, cotton, corn, barley, rye 

 and oats, all of which I have had since growing 

 as a part of my crop, particularly barley, which 

 was harvested about the 15th of May, and the 

 land immediatelj'^ planted in rice, making it pro- 

 duce two crops in one season. 



The land, by constant cultivation, has sunk so 

 much, that it is almost incredible to suppose the 

 probability of a plough, drawn by oxen, could 

 have gone over many parts of it. Large cypress 

 stumps and roots have since risen up, and now 

 show themselves 18 or 20 inches above the sur- 

 face of the land, with the visible marks of the axe. 

 The main bodies of the trees have been removed, 

 many of them six feet in diameter j here and there 



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