INTRODUCTION. X1H 



land have been made permanently productive, and in pecuniary 

 value have risen to the highest price of our most favored soils 

 All this has been achieved at a very moderate outlay of capi- 

 tal, in comparison with their increased value, and added largely 

 to the immediate wealth of their several localities. Very con- 

 siderable tracts of swamp land, perfectly drainable, still h'e 

 unproductive in almost every county in the United States, 

 even where the country is called well cultivated. These lands 

 require but the simple process described in this book, to become 

 productive, not only of the best crops, but in frequent instances 

 may yield vast stores of fertility in their surplus deposits to the 

 surrounding lands, and more than all, in giving health and 

 salubrity to an atmosphere hitherto poisoned by their malaria. 

 All this is matter of proof, from numerous trials, establishing 

 their value far beyond the doubtful results of a single experi- 

 ment, or the speculations of a plausible theory. 



It will be seen that this country is not alone in the indul- 

 gence of bark-bound prejudice to new plans and improvements 

 in agriculture a profession, we grieve to say, more enslaved 

 by that enemy to improvement in ah 1 professions than any 

 other we can mention. The people of no country whatever 

 are more wedded to old saws and maxims, or more doggedly 

 adhere to old practices, than the people of England and Scot- 

 land. The new systems of agriculture, which now give them 

 a greater product to the acre than almost any other country, 

 Belgium perhaps excepted, have been forced upon the English 

 farmer by the sagacious statesmen and landholders who have 

 the power to effect such systems. It is one of the striking 



