farmers' miscellany. 85 



grass, would not, in most cases, be thorough enough for the culti- 

 vation of grain. I suppose that the lowlands of Scotland afford 

 the best instances of thorough draining heavy land for tillage, and 

 the plan there adopted is, as I have been told, to lay the drains in 

 parallel lines at a distance apart of about two rods, and have them 

 lead off into large open ditches, through which the water passes 

 away. 



At two rods apart it will take about eighty rods of ditch to drain 

 an acre, which in this country will cost to dig and fill in a proper 

 manner, from fifty to eighty dollars, when perhaps one-quarter the 

 expense would fit it for the production of grass. 



As to draining bog swamps, such as exist in this part of the 

 country, I will say but little, hoping the owners will take my ad- 

 vice with most of them, and let them renew their covering of 

 maple, ash, birch, and elm, of which they ought never to have 

 been more than temporarily deprived ; for true it is, that when 

 cleared it is the most incorrigible and hopeless of land — only 

 one degree removed from solid rock on the score of profit, and 

 oftentimes worse than nothing. 



The draining they get is generally confined to setting the out- 

 let and cutting a main ditch through to take off the water, so that 

 cattle need not go by water to feed off the bogs. But as it is they 

 frequently mire and die in such places. And I have noticed that 

 those who think most of bog pasture continue to have the least 

 hay in the spring. They generally keep too much stock, which 

 makes a little bog grass in the spring a perfect god-send to them. 

 Their cows come home with dirty bags and sore teats, and there- 

 fore a good excuse for kicking. After all, bog grass is but little 

 earlier than clover on good dry soil, and if the time spent in 

 draining swamps was bestowed on the upland, it would be of 

 much more advantage to the owners in most cases. 



The peat and muck of all bog swamps with which I am ac- 

 quainted, rests on a bed of blue clay, which compels the water 

 which falls upon them to escape laterally into drains, or by evapo- 

 ration. Such swamps generally lie so level, that although they 

 may be filled with open drains, the soil, from its spongy and re- 

 tentive nature, will be too wet in the spring of most years for a 

 crop to come forward with any chance for success. Indeed, I see 



