274 On Salt Marsh. 



bourhood. Worse farmers than those near the bays 

 are not to be found. They are so fond of " birding," 

 that we may calculate events of the morrow with the 

 certainty of soothsayers — by the evening flight of wild 

 fowl. The} 7 will leave their horses standing at the har- 

 row, while they tend a hoop-net — or they will go " oy- 

 stering," or " drumming' ' (catching drum fish) on the 

 flats — or they doze in a batteau at night, a jug for a pil- 

 low, — a fish-line tied to the wrist ; while their wives and 

 •children are more actively employed at home, in brush- 

 ing away musquetoes with a turkey-wing. I mention these 

 habits of the natives, as being fairly within the calculations 

 that should be made, before a great improvement of salt 

 marsh is undertaken. These pursuits are called " natural 

 privileges," and under that head are justified many liber- 

 ties, such as neglecting to harrow sufficiently to secure a 

 crop for themselves or the owners of the soil, if a net is 

 to be mended, — using the teams for bringing home fish, 

 oysters, &c. &c. Notwithstanding all this, our amphi- 

 bious tenants contrived to get in between three and four 

 hundred acres of winter grain. Bad harrowing, light sow- 

 ing, late season, cattle plunging, men complaining, did 

 not seem to promise much ; yet the grain looked well 

 in November, better in the spring, and at harvest there 

 was the most brilliant display in one body, that perhaps 

 was ever seen in the middle states. The difference in 

 farming was, however, quite apparent in various lots. 



Succeeding years produced crops of winter grain 

 nearly as good, but some injury was felt from the fre- 

 quent succession of the same kind of grain — to this cause 

 we ascribe the large proportion of cheat that grew up in 



