278 On Salt Marsh. 



these began to fail. After the ground is once mixed 

 by the plough and harrow, the latter implement alone is 

 prefered for several years. One objection to ploughing 

 salt marsh in the first five years after it is enclosed, or 

 before the sod becomes rotten, is that the top, being 

 turned with the grass roots up, dries in the sun ; and, 

 not having enough moisture to accelerate putrefaction, 

 lies for years in the same state, like a spunge ; for it is 

 then too tough for the harrow, and clogs under it with- 

 out being broken : but if it were left fast to the ground, 

 without ploughing, a light harrow, of common construc- 

 tion, would skip and tear out a little at a time, in like 

 manner as oakum may be picked, when it cannot be pull- 

 ed to pieces. Another objection is, that the sod, so hard 

 and dry when ploughed up and exposed, covers that on 

 which it is turned ; and therefore the latter has not enough 

 sun to excite speedy fermentation, while it is kept suffi- 

 ciently moist to cherish many of the salt grass roots : 

 one hard sod is turned on another by the plough, and 

 must be left so, for the slow process of time. The har- 

 row will not break, nor tear it after it is ploughed, as 

 in upland. Nature does more for this soil in the first few- 

 years after it is drained, than all the force and art of man. 

 By letting it remain in its natural position, by waiting till 

 it settles, as it will when the water is drawn off by ditch- 

 es, all the expense of premature experiments in farming 

 may be saved r — a due proportion of heat from above, and 

 moisture from below, acting on vegetable and mineral 

 soils so intimately united, will sooner effect the necessary 

 decomposition of both ; when they will form a new soil, 

 capab! the usual improvement. Among the numer- 

 ous objections to the plough in \hz first few years> I will 



