1837.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



683 



same proportion does it take the place of that nat- 

 ural proprietor of the saline soil. When I speak 

 of salt marshes,] wish to be undersiood, those 

 marshes which are considerably brackish, but not 

 so much as those bonlerintj on the ocean. It is 

 asked, what method should a farmer adopt, so as 

 to render a liirht peat\' meadow more comriaci '? I 

 answer, the only probable and sure way would be, 

 to fodder his cattle throuirhout the winter on it: 

 for their treading would have a tendency to con- 

 solidate the surliice, and to cause a much thicker 

 growth of young grass the following spring. It 

 ma}^ appear incredible to those [)ersonp who are 

 strangers to this kind of marsh, when I tell them 

 that a mass of such peat or horse dung mud, as 

 large as a hogshead or vvagon body, exposed for a 

 i'ew weeks in sununer to the sun and winds, would 

 take fire as soon as it was applied ; or if thrown 

 into water, would float as light as a cork ; yet, ex- 

 traordinary as it may appear, (if proper care be 

 taken to get a sward of herdgrass upon it,) it 

 Avould astonish the beholder to view the abun(lant 

 crop. The innumerable roots of the herd-^rass, 

 while they obstruct the rays of the sun, atid the 

 winds from penetrating the surfcice, at the same 

 time shut in and retain the moisture for their own 

 benefit ; yet, if cultivation in proper time should 

 be neglected, this kind of marsh, will finally be- 

 come so very light and porous, that a man in at- 

 tempting to walk over it would sink to the depth 

 of his ancles. Am I asked by what method are 

 meadows to be continued improveable, so that 

 they may be rendered capable of yielding consid- 

 erable quantities of grass by the ordinary resources 

 of any practical farmer, and that in the most 

 easy and least expensive way ? I answer, by ir- 

 rigatwn in three ways: 1st. JPartial. 2d. Effectu- 

 al. 3d. Internal. 



Of Partial Irrigation. 



When meadows have been some time in banic, 

 it is always to be presumed that a considerable por- 

 tion of them have been brought into ffood grass, 

 and that even the very high parts may have be- 

 come too compact, or (as it is called by the farm- 

 ers,) bound, to yield that productive burden which 

 might be expected from them ; wherefore, that 

 the surface of the meadow miulit again be vivi- 

 fied, or, as it were, brought to life, fi-om that dead 

 state in which it is commonly said to he, when 

 bound, recourse should be had to irrigalion. It is a 

 common practice Avith some of our farmers to let 

 the water on their meadows about New Year's 

 day, and so continue it until the vegetation shows 

 itself in the spriuii, and when drawn off the sur- 

 face, they often have the appearance of a beauti- 

 ful irroen wheat field. Preparatory to irrlgatinir. 

 the sliiices should have doors hung to their ends, 

 so as to admit the tide, and, by shutting down, (o 

 prevent it from runninir out again. There should 

 also be a number of trunks made from two to 

 three feet square, and a faw feet lonirer than the 

 width of the bank; the number of these trunks 

 should be in proportion to the number of acres to 

 be irrigated, say one to about thirty acres. These 

 trunks are laid in the tide bank opposite the high- 

 est parts of the meadow, and on a level with its 

 surface, so that every flood might pass into it from 

 the difl'erent parts of the bank at one and the same 

 time, through these trunks and sluices; and on 



every ebbing of the tide might leave'its sediment 

 incorporated with the dead and decaying vegeta- 

 bles of the surface, which, by its daily increasing 

 in quantity, auiiiuents its weight upon the falling 

 rubbish, and with it affords the richest nutriment 

 to the expected crop of grass. That a fiu-mer 

 might have the benefit of the early crop of good 

 grass, such as timothy or green grass, which 

 miij,ht be cut in all the month of June, and also 

 improve the more inferior parts of his meadow by 

 sowing grass seed on such parts as had not taken, 

 he could, on or about the first of July, let the tide 

 on them by the above method, and continue \\\* 

 process until the first of April fbllovving. He 

 would then find, that where the rubbish had 

 grown in the greatest quantity, and been beaten 

 d')wn by various causes operating on it, there the' 

 sediment (becoming incorporated with it,) had 

 formed a new soil three or tour inches in depth 

 completely adapted tor the reception of grass 

 seeds. 



This would be the proper time lor the fiirmer to 

 profit by his former mistakes, (in delaying to sow 

 his marsh when first reclaimed,) by immediately 

 drawing off the water, and casting his seed with a 

 liberal hand upon the slimy surface of this new 

 formed stratum, composed of putrefied vegetables 

 and mud ; nor let him forget, as the vegetation ad- 

 vances, that, for insuring a good crop of valuable 

 crass, he must liave a stock of cattle, the number 

 of which ouirht to be in proportion to his acres, so 

 as to keep down the superfluous growth of the 

 wild plants. 



Effectual Irrigation^ or Drnv:ning the MarSh, as it 

 is called. 



After a meadow has been many years in bank, 

 the fine trasses almost all gone, and the surface 

 generally covered with a coarse vegetation scarce- 

 ly eatable, composed of weeds, rushes, boos, &c., 

 the farmer then things it time to let down the 

 marsh, and drown it. This method is performed 

 by cutting away the bank opposite the ditches, 

 and by removing the mud from oiT the sluices; 

 thus, the water having a free course 4hrough all 

 the ditches, circulates the sediment equnliv over 

 all parts of the marsh. A period of fi-om five to 

 seven years is considered necessary to produce the 

 desired efl'ect. Within this time there will have 

 formed on the surface of the marsh (on an ave- 

 rage,) a stratum of virgin mud, of fi^om eight to 

 twelve inches in depth. Should the marsh be per- 

 mitted to lie down for eighteen or twenty years, it. 

 will then have collected a new stratum of from 

 twelve to Iwenly-eighf inches in thickness. After 

 that length of time, there cannot be perceived 

 any additional accumulation of mud, because the 

 flow of the common tides will be no hiniier than 

 about on a level with the surface ; and I think it 

 would be a certain loss to any farmer to let his 

 marsl) continue m its wild state after it had been 

 down for even ten years, fJir the accumula- 

 tion of the mud would in no way compensate for 

 the loss of the difii^rence of time, in which profit 

 might have been derived from it in the ordinary 

 manner of mowing and grazing. The first time 

 that wild marsh may have been reclaimed, has 

 never been considered so valuable nor profitable, 

 nor will it so readily receive or retain that system 

 of improvement, as a meadow which had been 



