

^ij^^m ^jiiass®^9 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



r""pi^ISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK * Ca:N0.^2 N(mTH MARKEt"sTIIE.T, (A.a.cu.xu^.. W.a.»ouss.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



roi,.xxi.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY H^ 1843. 



[NO. 89. 



N. E. FARMER 



JXPERIENCE IN SWAMPS— GRAVRL ON 

 POROIJ.S SURFACRS— LARGE CROI'.S— 

 VALUABLE LANDS. 

 'o llie Eviitor ol'lhe Mass. Plowman ; 



Sir — (n Viiiir paper of Dec. I7th, in some re- 

 nnrks in reference to improvomciits on my grass 

 tanil-*, yon labored under n mistake in saying that 

 lind " I.ept out the sea and cnt Enallsli hay on 

 Id Minrsli bottom." My reclaimed lands are some 

 If them sitnated so that they are occasionally flow- 

 id by tide water, yet on account of the dislafice to 

 jhe inoulli I'f the river, tlio ivater is not so salt as 

 |o ijijiire the English grass ; and the location of 

 me piece of this land, which was reclaimed and 

 ceded down to grass last spring, doubtless led you 

 nto the error. 



At your request " that I would pive some ac- 

 ount of n.y farming," I herewith forward you some 

 bservalions on bo^s and swamps, the results, in 

 art, of what little experience i have had in re- 

 laiminu such lands. 



A swamp I hold to be worth draining, though 

 he pan or subsoil be nothing better than gravel or 

 «nd, provided there are 12 inches of black mould. 

 Vnd witii a good mould of only 6 inches to a clay- 

 y pan, I am confident a swamp properly back- 

 nrrowed into beds, will well pay the expense ; for 

 lay mi.\ed with mould by frequent plowings, 

 irms a good soil, retentive of manures. A bog or 

 baking ground is always worth draining provided 

 he e.xpcnse of an outlet is not too great, for its 

 ery nature implie.s the existence of a fine black- 

 sh mud of considerable depth, almost or quite in- 

 exhaustible as f,oil. Were I about to reclaim 

 nothcr swamp I should dig my main ditches with- 

 ■ut regard to straightness through the lowest pla- 

 es, talking the pan and, not the surface as my 

 'uide, and carry my ditch at the outlet to such a 

 I'epth as would harden the surface so much when 

 •ettled. as to admit of its bearing a yoke of oxen ; 

 nd I should by all means dig these ditches one 

 •ear at least before I commenced digging my late- 

 al imes, thus giving the land time to settle and 

 Irain. 



Some writers say that the drain at the outlet 

 ihould be sulnoieiilly deep to "carry off the water 

 rem the bottom of a marsh or shaking meadow." 

 But, Mr I-]dUor, if I had followed Mr Dickson and 

 jlhcrs in this re.-pect, with a bog of 7 feet deep, I 

 lave no doubt my land would have been much too 

 Iry, and it is my opinion that no specific rules can 

 36 fiven. The differences of situation and soil, 

 the number of springs and brooks, and their rela- 

 Live position, the existence of shaking grounds, the 

 iinevenness at the snvface, and of the hardened sub- 

 joil below, are all matters which demand corres- 

 pondent differences of management. Vet while 

 for good reasons we do not choose to follow a wri- 

 ter in every thing, we should, for equally good rea- 

 sons, reap all the advantages we can, not only 

 from our own experience but from the experience 

 of olhcre. Be cautious, but yci disposed to learn. 1 



After digging my main ditches, &c. the second 

 year I shourd construct my lateral or cross ditches 

 as nearly at right angles with my main ditches as 

 the circumstances of the case would admit. I have 

 plowed mv lowlands into form by commencing in 

 the centre of what I designed as a bed, and back- 

 furrowing until I have obtained what I considered 

 the proper depth for the ditches on the outrides, 

 placing these ditches from 8 to 30 feet asunder, as 

 the degree of wetness seemed to require. I have 

 made ft a rule never to use the shovel in opening 

 ditches, nor even the scraper, (which in some situa- 

 tion« is a much better instrument,) where the ditch- 

 es could bo formed by ridgoplowings; for no in- 

 strument removes earth so fast as the plow, to say 

 nothing of the benefits derived by the soil and in 

 getting the land into proper shape. 



1 have usually planted my swamplands with po- 

 tatoes and corn, giving the corn the drier parts of 

 the soil and using about one-half a sl.ovelfuU ot 

 compost manure to the hill, finding it necessary 

 to use no more manure on such lands, after they 

 were sufiiciently dry by draining, than was required 

 to give the crop a start. Ami I have never known 

 any crop on such a soil to suffer for lack of suste- 

 nance after June 20th. I have received in my 

 crops of grain and vegetables ample remuneration 

 for the labor bestowed after the soil was once sub- 

 dued ; yet I think it a belter way to keep such 

 lands to grass, by giving them a very moderate top- 

 dressing with some good compost manure, once in 

 a year or two, and never allowing cattle to rove 

 over such soils ; for if the centres of the beds are 

 sufficiently dry to support their tread, they will 

 most certainly spoil the ditches and their edges by 

 " poaching'" them, as we farmers understand this 

 term ; thus obstructing the course of the water and 

 rendering the surface uneven. 



I have used a [covering of gravel or sand on 

 some parts of my lowlands, but do not consider it 

 so good nor so cheap a manner of reclaiming a 

 fine black mould .swamp, as the above described 

 method ; but should much prefer it on a porous 

 surface. Indeed I once tried to reclaim a small 

 piece of such soil by draining and ridge-plowing, 

 and could not succeed in making any thing grow, 

 although there was moisture very near the surface, 

 until I put on three inches of gravel. 



In. the years of 1820, '21, and '22, my father re- 

 claimed 1 acre and 34 rods of swamp land, from 

 whicli he obtained 5 tons and 561 lbs. of good Eng- 

 lish hay, in two crops, which is after the rate of 

 4 tons and 721 lbs. per acre. Last season I seed- 

 ed down this same swamp, together with about 3-4 

 of an acre in the same piece which was suffered to 

 remain unsubdued by my father in 1820, but on ac- 

 count of the severe drought of 1841, my grass 

 seed, though at first abundant, seemingly nearly 

 all died. In the spring of this year, vegetation in 

 general was very backward, and the grass in this 

 swamp appeared most unpromising ; indeed I seri- 

 ously thought of again seeding it down to grass; 

 but having another piece of swamp under cultiva- 

 tron, I concluded to be patient and see what would 

 come of it. 



As the season advanced, the gYowlh of grass 

 spread and took possession of considerable part of 

 the ground, and to my surprise, gave me, as nearly 

 as wc could Judge, at the first mowing, about .'J 1-2 

 tons of merchantable English hay, and as the sward 

 was but thinly covered with grass, I concluded to 

 mow such parts only a second time a.s were very 

 stout, and I cut about 1 1-2 ton, thuaniakiuy: about 

 7 tons of mcrchanlible hay on about two :icre3 of 

 swamp land under the most favorable circumstan- 

 ces. 



It does appear clearly certain that these soils 

 will not only pay their way, but may be made in 

 various ways the source of enriching other parts of 

 our farms ; yet how few of our swamp owners can 

 be induced to consult their own interests in the 

 best way, and draw from these neglected and un- 

 sightly, though prolific depositories of vegetable 

 life, an amount of food equal to the support of a 

 population much greater than now exists in any of 

 our towns. 



Yours, with respect, 



CHARLES W. MACOMBER. 

 East Marshfidd, Dec. 24. 



Galvanic Plant and Tree. Proledors — For the 

 benefit of our fruit-cultivating subscribers, we copy 

 from an exchange paper the following account of 

 what seems a simple and effectual preventive 

 against the ravages of the insect tribe : 



"Galvanic Plant Protectors have been devised in 

 England, to protect delicate garden flowers, Sic. 

 from slugs, caterpillars, &ic. A conical zinc ring, 

 four inches high, is flanked off a quarter of an inch 

 at the top, and cut into several vandyked points; 

 a riiiT of copper is fitted immediately under. The 

 lower end is pressed into the ground. The insect, 

 on coming in contact with tlie copper, receives a 

 shock that throws him off. There is always mois- 

 ture enough present to keep the battery in action ; 

 the copper ring being within an inch and a half of 

 the ground. It has the appearance of a flower-pot 

 inverted over the plant." — A*. 1'. paper. 



Low Prices. — Among other accounts of Ihe aw- 

 ful distress that prevails in Ohio, a Dayton paper 

 states that at a constable's sale held at that place 

 recently, good hay brought but oiie dollar per ton, 

 and e.\cellent cows went for tliree dollars each, that 

 being all that could be procured. The samp pa- 

 per a'dds that there is scarcely any money left in 

 circulation in the State, except a mere trifle of 

 good bank paper and specie, and that all prices are 

 depressed accordingly. 



The Rochester Democrat, of last week, .''ays that 

 pood beef was selling in that city every day at one 

 dollar per hundred. 



Trees. By felling the trees that cover the tops 



and sides of mountains, (says Humboldt,) men in 

 every climate prepare at once two calamities for 

 future generations— want of fuel and scarcity of 

 water. 



