HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 255 



stems and fibres of plants like the sedges and grasses, and 

 expose it on high ground to the heat of the sun, and to the 

 drying winds, and to frost and rain ; turn it over occasionally 

 with a shovel, mingle with it half a dozen bushels of good 

 animal manure ; and to furnish the requisite earthy or saline 

 matter in which it may be deficient, lime it, or ash it, or marl 

 it, or clay it, or gravel it, or sand it, or loam it. Under this 

 process it loses its organic character and becomes adapted to 

 the support of plants. What is true of a cart load of this veg- 

 etable matter, is true of the whole mass in the meadow from 

 which it was taken. By draining, by turning up to the sun, 

 by the action of the air, of frost, and rain, by the addition of 

 saline or earthy matter, by the use of the plough, the harrow 

 and the hoe, by the addition of a small amount of appropriate 

 manure, it becom.es to some depth decomposed, and exceed- 

 ingly well adapted to the support of vegetation. Its character 

 is changed hy this process from an orgajiic into an inorganic 

 state, from barrenness into fertility. 



Beside changing the condition of the soil, this process in- 

 creases ease of cultivation. The plough, the cultivator, the 

 harrow, the hoe, the rake, which were impeded in their use before 

 a thorough process was commenced upon land partially reclaimed 

 and while it was in progress, can, after it is completed, perform 

 their office with comparative ease. The work can not only be 

 well done, but can be done at a less expense of force and time. 

 The productive area of the farm is increased. Even if the 

 redeemed meadow land should continue to be too wet for 

 wheat and Indian corn, it will, by an abundant -production of 

 hay, leave the other parts of the farm at liberty for the produc- 

 tion of such crops. 



This process improves the quality of the production. It 

 changes aquatic plants and coarse grasses into land plants and 

 fine grasses, just as surely as it changes aquatic animals like the 

 frog and the water-rat, for other animals like the horse and the 

 sheep. Aquatic plants, with the exception of rice, which can- 

 not be cultivated in our climate, are inferior to land plants. It 

 not only changes the kind but improves the quality of the 

 same kind, in accordance with the general law that vegetable 



