On Salt Marsh. 271 



with innumerable spiders of the long-leg tribe : these all 

 perished at the first frost ; while such grains as were co- 

 vered by the earth, however shallow the protection, sur- 

 vived the winter, stooled in the spring, wherever there 

 was soft earth to creep into, and produced an amazing 

 increase ; that is to say, the increase of covered grains 

 was amazing, not that the whole crop was. A bushel of 

 the wheat weighed sixty-four pounds, and it was all 

 alike, except the common white wheat, which neither 

 yielded nor weighed so much as the red- chaff bearded 

 wheat. In its growing state, it was, and has been ever 

 since, free from mildew, and we attribute this fact to the 

 saline particles of the atmosphere.* The rye was more 

 abundant ; for, being a smaller grain, more of the seed 

 had fallen into the harrow- cuts, and there obtained shelter. 

 The whole product of three hundred acres did not pay 

 the expenses, by many hundred dollars, but the ultimate 

 value of the soil was apparent, from the vigour and health 

 of those plants that were covered from the weather. 



In the spring, oats were sown in the soft ground, 

 where it had settled so as to allow cattle to go over with 

 a harrow ; and a better crop, it is presumed, never was 

 seen ; the straw enormous, and the top well filled. In- 

 dian corn was put in other lots, with a hoe ; it grew in 

 some places, but failed in most. Our workmen, with- 

 out experience on a soil of this nature, planted so deep 

 that the seed became rotten, by the water that had not yet 

 filtrated to the ditches ; or so shallow that the sun dried it 



* There is a common practice among shallopmen. to dash salt 

 ■water on the sails, to prevent mildew. 



