CHAPTER II. 



WHAT THE FARM WAS. 



[HERE were then about 125 acres in the farm. 

 About 45 acres were upland ; the rest muck swamp 

 or bottomland. This lowland was and is very rich, 

 receiving as it does the wash from many barnyards, 

 which spreads fertility over it with every overflow. 

 It did receive the wash from the barnyard on this 

 farm, but does not now. Others are not all equally 

 as saving, however. But for lack of sufficient fall for good drain- 

 age this fertility has been of little use. At a cost of about $500 

 for our share, I got a county ditch some miles long established. 

 The land was thus drained sufficiently to insure its not injuring 

 our health, but hardly enough to be of any great practical use. 

 The remark was made soon after I came over here that Terry 

 could make something if he could manage to fence in the wild 

 ducks. This lowland has played little part in our farming. I 

 tried to do something with it at first by pasturing it with dairy 

 cows, and later with young stock. But before long, experience 

 and figures led me as nearly as practicable to fence it off by itself. 

 Then for a time I rented it, some 70 acres, for the enormous sum 

 of $25 a year, and thought, all things considered, this was better 

 than to try and use it myself. A few years later I sold the 70 

 acres of bottomland to a poor man who wanted to try his hand 

 at it. He paid nothing down and it eventually came back on my 

 hands, on account of the death of the purchaser. Then it was 

 again rented for a time at $25 a year to a neighbor for pasture. 

 It was finally sold to this same neighbor, D. W. Myers, and I 

 now get six per cent, interest on the low price it was sold for. 

 This will give you an idea of how much we ever got out of the 

 swamp. I might add, however, that we got some ten or twelve 

 stacks, or possibly more, of marsh hay, at one time or another, 

 which was brought onto the upland and fed, which, of course, 

 helped that a little. 



After getting this 70 acres fenced off and disposed of, we had 

 about 55 left, but not all good land by any means. In that there 

 were about ten acres of swamp, in spots, that are practically 

 waste. One low patch of two or three acres serves as a cow pas- 

 ture, being fairly drained (not enough possibly, or practically at 

 least, for tillage). The rest is utterly waste. Some little use 

 might be made of it, but I have found too much luck about it. 

 It may be overflowed any day in summer, in spite of all we can do. 

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