68 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



price of English hay, and no less. It is scarcely an exag- 

 geration to say that the actual nourishing power of different 

 parcels of hay, sold in the market at a uniform price, may 

 vary as much as fifty per cent. 



To the producers of hay for market, merely, who care noth- 

 ing for its quality except as its quality may affect its price, 

 the nature of the soil on which it is grown is of compara- 

 tively little consequence. But to such as intend to feed their 

 hay to stock upon their own farms, it is important to know 

 how far and under what circumstances it is good husbandry 

 to expend money in reclaiming swamps or undrained low- 

 lands. In most of the towns in Plymouth County, where 

 large areas of arable land lie already cleared, but uncultivated, 

 and where the supply of available farm labor is not abundant, 

 the reclaiming of peat swamps, especially such as are mainly 

 covered with bushes, can hardly be recommended. Land fit 

 for the plough can be bought and put into a condition to pro- 

 duce valuable forage grasses for much less than the cost of 

 reclaiming such swamps, even where permanently effectual 

 drainage can be secured without exorbitant outlays, which is 

 very seldom the case. Water is essential to perfection of 

 vegetable growth. When present in due season and quantity, 

 it is a blessing; out of season, or in excess, it is a curse. 



But there is a wide difference in the improvable value of 

 swampy land. That which is unproductive merely because it 

 is saturated with water, especially spriug water, and which 

 but for such saturation, would become firm but friable loam, 

 presents the most favorable conditions for the expenditure of 

 capital in its improvement, with a reasonable certainty of 

 remunerative results. To render such land productive, the 

 essential preliminary operation is thorough drainage. Very 

 few farmers have any adequate conception of what consti- 

 tutes thorough drainage. To most of them, the term is 

 suggestive only of a few surface ditches, from twelve to 

 twenty inches deep, and irregularly located ; or, at best, of 

 occasional tile or stone drains, rods, perhaps, apart; the for- 

 mer continually obstructed by vegetable or earthy deposits, the 

 latter too widely separated, and too nearly level to effectually 

 remove the surplus water from soils which absorb it almost as 

 readily and retain it almost as tenaciously as a sponge. 



