1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



421 



crops. Two things then are to be done, before our 

 upland crops of grass, or grain or roots, can thrive 

 upon them. The first is 



DBAISTSG. 



Examine your ground carefully, at the outset, 

 and be sure that you know whence the water 

 comes that makes the land too wet. Does it rain 

 down upon the hills, and run into the swamp, and 

 so flood it for want of an outlet ? or does some 

 stream back up upon it from below, raised by a 

 dam, which sonie factory or grist mill has a right 

 to keep up ? or does it flow into the land from 

 springs which burst up around the edges, or per- 

 haps in the midst of it, at the bottom ? If the wa- 

 ter runs in on the surface, the obvious mode of dry- 

 ing the swamp is to make open ditches that shall 

 cut it oif before it reaches the low land, or if this 

 cannot be done, to collect it at the outside, in 

 open ditches, and conduct it off through the lot, as 

 speedily as possible. If you have back-water from 

 a dam to contend with, perhaps your best course is 

 to sell out and move ofi", for in many local investi- 

 gations which I have witnessed, I have never been 

 able to see any limit to the effect of back-water. 



It not only rises to the height of the dam, but is ' 

 drawn by cajjillary attraction, as well as piled up i 

 by the retardation of the stream, so that nothing 

 but actual experiment can determine where the ef- 

 fect of tlie dam ceases. Besides that, the efi"ect of 

 back-water, which of course produces stagnant wa- 

 ter in the ground, is far worse than that of run- 

 ning \\ater. In nine cases out of ten, however, 

 meadows in this part of the country are rendered 

 too wet by spring water, which is rain water falling 

 on higher land and passing down into the earth till 

 it finds a water-bearing stratum, frequently clay or 

 rock, but sometimes of compact gravel, upon which 

 it runs until it comes out at the surface, or oozes 

 through the soil, rendering it cold and barren. I 

 have at this time a drain open on land which has 

 been m.owed eight years, and which I have plowed 

 since hayi'ng, to be laid down with grass seed and 

 turnips, which gives a good illustration of the o])e- 

 ration of these cold springs. I noticed a wet place 

 ?fter plowing, and had a hole dug with a spade to 

 ascertain the cause. This is a spot on a hill-side, 

 perhaps fifteen feet above the level of the stream 

 which runs along twenty rods below. First came 

 about a foot of dark soil, then two or three inches 

 cf white compact sand, then about six inches of red 

 gravel, and under this down to the centre, for 

 aught I know, solid clay. The water filled the hole 

 in an hour or two, to within a foot of the surface 

 of the ground, and this in a dry time. V/ater can- 

 not pass through clay, but runs on the top of it, in 

 the ground, just as on the surface, only slower, and 

 breaking out thus on the hill-sides, and very often 

 at the edge of a swamp, drowns all vegetation, with- 

 •jut showing itself at all on the top of the soil. 



Usually water flows into a swamp only from one 

 side. The substratum of clay, or other impervious 

 substance, frequently has a dip or inclination much 

 more regular than the visible surface, and carries 

 the water in one direction, as for instance on my 

 farm, from north to south. To intercept and cut 

 off" this water, cut a ditch across the course of it, 

 deep enough to cut into the stratum on which the 

 water runs, a few inches, otherwise the water will 

 run under the bottom of the ditch, and come out 

 as before. 



For want of stones, I have made use of brush for 



underdrains, covering it with turf. These answer 



a good purpose for eight or ten years. I am now 



using strips of pine boards, wliich I happen to have 



on hand, sawed six inches wide. Two of these I 



nail together, and lay the edges upon old boards 



in the bottom of the drain, forming a triangular 



opening. On this, I place swamp hay, bushes or 



tan, and cover up. In wet land I find bushes that 



were laid eight years ago, quite sound, so that I 



think pine boards will last many years. This 



seems a shiftless way of doing the business, but my 



I farm affords no stones, and we have not arrived at 



I the dignity of drain tiles yet, and on the whole we 



jmay say of it, as a woman said of her husband who 



jwas not a pattern of good morals, "He is no great 



'of a husband, but he is a dreadful sight belter than 



none." 



If open drains are used, cut the boards at an an- 

 gle of forty-five degrees, so that they will not fall 

 in. If underdrains are used, cut them nearly per- 

 pendicular, and as narrow as is convenient. 



KrLLEXG OUT THE WILD GRASS. 



The cheapest, quickest and best method of kill- 

 ing out the bad grasses, is to plow the land. If the 

 mud is very deep, this perhaps cannot be done, but 

 if there is not more than a foot or eighteen inches 

 of mud, land ought to be drained enough, so that 

 the plow can be used. Hauling sand or gravel 

 upon a swamp to form a soil, on top of the wild 

 I grass, is an endless task. It requires about one 

 I hundred ox cart loads of earth to cover an acre 

 jone inch deep, and it requires several inches to kill 

 swamp grass. After the land is plowed, almost any 

 sand, gravel or soil, is beneficial to a bog meadow, 

 applied to the surface and harrowed in with the 

 grass seed. I should advise to apply manure of 

 some kind. 



A compost of guano, at the rate of two hundred 

 pounds to the acre, I think is well adapted to bog 

 meadowy .vhich contain the elements of fertility in 

 themselves, though frequently combined with acids 

 which render them unproductive at their first ex- 

 posure to the air. The action of frost, after a 

 swamp is drained, and exposed to the atmosphere 

 by planting and hoeing for a season, usually is 

 found to add to their fertility. 

 No rule can be given as to the distance at which 



