VALUE OF SWAMP LANDS. 



Most farmers in hilly or rolling sections are familiar 

 with swamp, or black, soils. In some sections nearly every 

 farm has a low, wet place where the soil is black and sticky. 

 In the middle West, notably in Indiana and Illinois and 

 adjoining states, there are large areas of these swamps or 

 black lands which are called "unproductive" and frequently 

 are not cultivated In fact, so much of this land is found 

 in the two states just mentioned that the experiment stations 

 have made a special study of this class of soils. Farmers 

 have generally been taught to believe that the black soils 

 are naturally very rich in plant food. 



"The swamps ought to be rich since they have received 

 for centuries the drainage from the hills". 



We often hear farmers make that statement and there is 

 much truth in it. Many of these places represent the 

 bottoms of old ponds, the water having dried out or escaped 

 in some way so as to leave the bottom bare. Here Nature 

 has locked up great treasures of plant food, and in doing 

 so, as we shall see, carried the key away with her. 



la a general way two methods of handling such soils 

 have been tried, both based on the theory that swamp soil 

 or muck contains a well baiariced ration of all needed 



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