RECLAIMED MEADOWS. 63 



dividing line between swamp mud and muck as it is to use the 

 two words. The difference between them and peat is very dis- 

 tinct and marked. Mud and muck seem, generally, to be so 

 entirely disorganized as to leave scarce a trace of vegetable 

 substance, and, in some cases, none whatever. The mud in the 

 lowest parts of the land bordering upon the brooks, in the 

 eastern part of this county, is of this kind, and is so deep that 

 a hay-pole, twelve feet in length, may be pressed into it without 

 touching bottom. 



Whether these mud swamps will ever be drained, it will be, 

 probably, for some future generation to determine. If the work 

 is ever accomplished, it will be done by great expenditure of 

 money and labor. When drained, they will furnish most valua- 

 ble lands for tillage, which, in their unreclaimed state, are nearly 

 valueless, except as a dwelling-place for toads, frogs, snakes, 

 moles, snipes, woodcock and blackbirds. Alas, for this numer- 

 ous hoard of swamp aborigines, when these low lands shall be 

 reclaimed from the dominion of water, and turned into rich 

 fields of the very best tillage land, of which New England can 

 boast. This is no groundless speculation. Mr. Shipman's re- 

 claimed land, in Hadley, is, this very day, worth more per aero 

 than the very best meadow land in the world-renowned Connec- 

 ticut Valley, for the reason, that a given amount of labor and 

 manure will produce more tobacco, more Indian corn, or broom- 

 corn, or potatoes, than the same expenditure will yield on the 

 best alluvial on the river of pines. Such a fact should cause 

 every man who owns a peat swamp to smile in view of his 

 treasure. For, when drained, it may be rendered not only very 

 productive, but will furnish, also, material to reclaim worn-out 

 old fields. Many are beginning to believe that these lands, 

 that have been deemed worthless swamps, are the most desira- 

 ble for improvement. 



The day is not far distant when a good farmer will be ashamed 

 of his neighbor, whose unreclaimed swamp furnishes a dwelling 

 place, through the warm season, for croaking frogs, toads and 

 peepers. The time is at hand, it is hoped, when all the swamps 

 and swales of Massachusetts will be drained and tilled, and 

 thus rendered productive. Many acres in this county have 

 already been reclaimed, and made to bear much produce. 



