224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



condition of both, do not reveal circumstances which are 

 varying from the present information, it seems but proper 

 that the Green Harbor River, with its extensive ramifications, 

 should be converted into the common receiver of the drainage 

 waters of the entire marshes. The periodical rise and fall of 

 the level of the river would favor, in an unusual degree, the 

 diluting and final replacing of the strong saline subsoil water. 

 The main drain ditches should, for obvious reasons, start from 

 the river, and branch off in continuous lines to the interior 

 termination of the marshes ; for ditches without any outlet to 

 the river can be of but little benefit, except they occupy a 

 large area, and even then can only partly perform the work 

 needed. Many of the old and isolated ditches might, after 

 some cleaning out, be made serviceable as links or parts in a 

 more general system of draining. In case an attempt to 

 introduce a general plan should be delayed, or fail entirely, 

 decidedly better results might be secured from a comparatively 

 large area in the vicinity of the river by connecting many of 

 the already existing old ditches with the river, and thereby 

 opening outlets for injurious, strong saline solutions, similar 

 to that described above as sample II. In many instances, 

 where indications are of local obstructions in surface- 

 drainage, due to intervening, impervious layers of clayey 

 deposits, much benefit might be secured by cutting simply 

 through the soil-mass to a depth of from four to five feet, and 

 subsequently filling up the excavation with coarse materials, 

 stones, etc. The existence of such condition of the tidal- 

 water deposits within the marshes, and their serious effect on 

 the vegetation, has been discussed already in detail in a 

 previous report. 



The late success upon the drained and ploughed lands is a 

 substantial indorsement of our previous advice to use the 

 plough effectually as soon as the soil foils to produce a good 

 grass crop in consequence of a breaking down of its sod. 



Some of the most enterprising, and at the same time most 

 successful, local managers of the marshes, concede the correct- 

 ness of our opinion, that the unusual exposure of the grass- 

 roots is the main cause of a reappearance of a worthless 

 growth in places where for a few years past valuable crops 

 had been secured. An early ploughing of these tracts can 



