No. 4.] INUNDATED LANDS. 381 



tillage. In the greater part of our level bogs, particularly 

 those of more than an acre in extent, the peat is commonly 

 so thick that it is rarely worth while to undertake its 

 removal. It is only in the case of the swamps which have a 

 perceptibly sloping surface that the peaty layer is likely to 

 be moderately shallow. Moreover, the deeper bogs are in 

 many cases underlaid by a more or less ferruginous layer 

 known as bog iron ore. This coating, which lies between 

 the decaying vegetable matter and the earth, is often six 

 inches or more in thickness, and more or less completely 

 sterilizes the soil when it is brought into condition for tillage. 



The inventive talent of our farmers has already led to 

 the use of a system whereby these deep bogs may be more 

 readily made profitable than by the costly methods required 

 in the complete removal of the peat, such as have been used 

 in northern Europe. In south-eastern Massachusetts a large 

 part of the deep peat bogs have been stripped of their super- 

 ficial coating of living vegetation, covered with sand and 

 planted with cranberries. Where it is possible to secure a 

 sufficient supply of fresh water to inundate these bogs, in 

 order to protect the flowers and fruit from frosts and from 

 insects, this form of culture has been singularly successful, 

 affording perhaps a larger return on the capital invested than 

 any other form of tillage which has been practiced in the 

 Northern States of this Union. The profits are only, if at 

 all, exceeded by those which are won from the better class 

 of orange groves in Florida. An extensive series of statis- 

 tics concerning this industry, which I have recently gathered, 

 indicates that the average cost of preparing an acre of bog 

 for cranberry culture, including the expense of caring for the 

 fields until the first full crop is obtained, amounts to about 

 five hundred dollars per acre, and the average net return 

 amounts to between one hundred and fifty dollars and two 

 hundred dollars per annum. 



Unfortunately, only a small part of the peat bogs of 

 Massachusetts are in that portion of the Commonwealth 

 where the climatic conditions are favorable for cranberry 

 culture. Experience appears to show that the growth of 

 this plant cannot be profitably essayed in districts north of 

 Boston, or at a distance of more than twenty miles from the 



