86 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



no way of reclaiming such land but to throw it into large ridges, 

 at great expense ; and then I think it would have to be dressed 

 largely with alkalies to dissolve the muck, to secure permanent 

 fertility. But if the time spent in ridging was employed in re- 

 moving the muck and peat to the upland, it would be much better 

 paid. 



I do not think these remarks, in relation to the bog swamps east 

 of the Alleganies, apply with as much force, and perhaps with 

 very little force, to the swampy grounds west of the mountains ; 

 for I have observed, in travelling through the western states, that 

 most of the swamp lands or wet prairies are covered with grass, 

 some of which is of good quality, instead of the unsightly bogs 

 which cover acres soon after they are denuded of wood, and that 

 they are easily drained, and when drained make the best of corn 

 and grass land, in fact vieing with the bottom lands in the produc- 

 tion of corn. 



The muck appears to be more open and porous, so that when 

 drained the superabundant rain which falls upon it soon settles away 

 so as to leave the surface soil dry enough for the roots of cultiva- 

 ted plants to thrive in. And I have been assured that in draining 

 for the cultivation of grass, the water should not be settled more 

 than eighteen inches below the surface, or it would be too dry for 

 timothy grass ; an instance of which I saw myself in Indiana, 

 where the owner had drained too thoroughly for grass, and in order 

 to restore it had been obliged to partially fill up the ditches. 



I suppose the difference between the soils of the eastern and 

 western swamps cannot be known without a chemical analysis of 

 each ; and as Dr. Dana has already analysed the soils of ten differ- 

 ent swamps in Massachusetts, it only remains to procure the anal- 

 ysis of the soil of some western wet prairie to make the compari- 

 son, the result of which I would very much like to see. 



A large portion of the land which requires draining lies between 

 the swamps and streams and the uplands immediately contiguous 

 to the former, and offers great advantages for draining by having 

 sufficient descent to carry off the water. Such border land appears 

 to need nothing more to bring it to a good state for the production 

 of grass, than to cut off the springs and leaches that are generally 

 confined to the borders of the upland ; and therefore, the first 



