CLEARING AND BREAKING 



295 



Clearing and Breaking. When peat and muck lands are 

 covered with tree growth, the problem of clearing and removing 

 the stumps is comparatively simple, since the stumps are usually 

 shallow rooted and the soil is light and loose. 1 The cost of clearing 

 varies from fifteen to thirty dollars per acre, and sometimes as 

 high as seventy-five to one hundred dollars per acre. 



Rank grass, sphagnum moss and brush can best be eliminated 

 through burning. The most desirable time to accomplish this is 



FIG. 194. Two twenty-four-inch bottom plows turning tough marsh turf. (Wisconsin 



Station.) 



when the rubbish is dry but the soil wet. This is usually done dur- 

 ing late spring and early summer. Peat should never be allowed 

 to burn except when there is a surface layer of loose, spongy, raw 

 peat. In such a case conditions should be controlled to prevent the 

 burning of the lower stratum. Should peat soil catch fire, the best 

 method of putting it out, unless soaking rains come, is to dig an 

 open trench around the fire down to moist or wet earth and let 

 it burn itself out. 



Wild turf on marshes is usually very tough and difficult to break. 

 The use of heavy, wide-bottomed breaking plows gives best results 



1 When peat and muck lands supporting tree growth are drained by good 

 open ditches, the trees soon die. It is desirable to leave the open ditches 

 three to four years to allow for the settling of the peat. The ditches are then 

 cleaned out and the tile laid. During the settling period the trees may be cut 

 and the stumps pulled. 



