64 



Reclaimed Swamp. 



Vol. XII. 



some situations by laying down the main 

 vine under ground six inches, say from three 

 to ten feet or more, and bring the top nearer 

 the ground, and in an open space or on a dif- 

 ferent tree, it improves the fruit the same 

 year if done early. 



These hints are given not to induce ne- 

 glect of proper culture, but to induce farm- 

 ers — who always have enough to do when 

 such ought to be done — to plant and protect 

 one year. Hundreds of farmers west, and 

 many east, have not a vine on their farm ; 

 when, for the amount of labour and cost, I 

 know of nothing that so much contributes to 

 the comfort of their family and friends. A. 



Reclaimed Swamp. 



T. A". D' Wolf's Statement.— The piece 

 of land I offer for premium contains twelve 

 acres and nine rods. To describe its ap- 

 pearance at the time I purchased, 1838, is 

 impossible — full of bushes, large pine stumps, 

 old logs, roots, bogs and brakes, mire holes 

 and deep pits, swarms of frogs, serpents and 

 lizards, — it was literally a den of "creeping 

 things." One man in Chester — a poor man 

 — had opened the door to this bedlam, and 

 for many years, had the entire control of the 

 wild grass, which he carried out on poles, 

 and paid annually $3. This lot lies con- 

 cave. The depression, or swampy portion, 

 contains about six acres ; its sides or upland 

 were full of knolls and depressions, with 

 briars, bushes, old logs and large stones — 

 boulders — the most of them so large that 

 they could not be removed witliout blasting, 

 and some from eight to ten feet in diameter. 



In the summer of 1839, I employed two 

 Irishmen, and conmienced ditching. I put 

 a large centre ditch from north to south, 

 and cross ditches from the centre, east and 

 west, to the more elevated portions. The 

 muck, in some portions of the centre ditch, 

 is from six to eight feet deep, and gradually 

 lessens as it approaches the upland. The 

 bottom is a blue clay and white sand. After 

 cutting the centre ditch, I employed four 

 men with scythes, bosh-hooks and axes, to 

 cut off the orass and bushes, requiring them 

 to put all the bushes into heaps, and the 

 grass was taken off on poles, equal to two 

 tons of good hay. The expense of cutting 

 and piling the brush, and getting the hay, 

 was forty-five days' work, for which I paid 

 $45. After my cross-ditches were cut, I 

 set fire to the heaps of brush, and in less 

 than two hours the whole lot presented one 

 black, smoking surface, and for the first 

 time, probably, within the knowledge of 

 man, it was thrown open to the full influ- 

 ence of the sun. 



How it was possible, with any meansJ pos- 

 sessed, to remove the hundreds of stumps — 

 and most of them large pine — the countless 

 number of old logs, to fill up the great cavi- 

 ties, to remove the bogs, to dispose of the 

 great rocks upon the upland, I could not 

 conceive. It had always been a principle 

 with me never to look back; but then, this 

 enterprise had been undertaken against the 

 advice of some of my best friends ; first, be- 

 cause it was impracticable, and secondly, 

 because, from my early youth, I had not 

 been engaged in agricultural pursuits, and 

 must be ignorant, of course, of the best man- 

 ner of conducting the business. I was re- 

 solved, however, to go ahead, and this was 

 one of the best resolutions of my life. As 

 I moved forward. I soon found the.^e moun- 

 tains were molehills, and that many of these 

 " insurmountables" were the exact materials 

 I wanted in the completion of my object. 

 The rocks and small stones upon the upland 

 would make me a bold and durable fence, 

 the bogs would fill up the mire holes in the 

 mucky portions, and also the cavities in the 

 upland, after removing the smaller rocks. 

 The large amount of muck thrown from the 

 ditches was just the thing for the upland, 

 giving me an abundance of manure. The 

 pine stumps and logs furnished a good qual- 

 ity of stove wood, for which I had been pay- 

 ing SI 150 and $2 per cord, and most of all, 

 my friends had become convinced of the 

 practicability of the operation, and that, too, 

 in my hands. 



The lot now presents a smooth surface, 

 with the exception of some large stones on 

 the upland. Every rod in the lot can be 

 ploughed with an ox team. Most of the up- 

 land has been ploughed and cultivated with 

 crops of wheat, corn, oats and potatoes. 

 More than two-thirds of the mucky portion 

 has been ploughed, made clean as a garden, 

 cultivated with potatoes and oats, and seeded 

 with herd's grass and clover. In seeding 

 these portions, I am in the habit of giving a 

 libera! top-dressing of horse manure — which, 

 f believe, is preferable — say twenty-five cart 

 loads to the acre, mixing it well by thorough 

 harrowing. The portions which have not 

 been ploughed have a smooth surface, and 

 give me from one to two tons per acre of 

 good stock hay, foul meadow, blue joint, and 

 a tall native grass which resembles very 

 much a large growth of red-top. I have 

 been in the habit of taking up every year 

 more or less for potatoes, with a view to 

 clean the land, and the next season would 

 put on oats and seed down. In seeding with 

 oats, I have invariably lost much of my crop 

 from the great growth of straw, being down 

 and not well filled. The last year I adopted 



