EECLAIMED MEADOWS. VS 



ground, soft in consequence of the water's being suffered to remain, 

 where draining has not been employed to remove it. These are usu- 

 ally seen interspersed among the hills of the four western counties of 

 this state. The term swale is used among the farmers in the same 

 sense, as the word swamp, as here defined. Such land, as is indi- 

 cated by the words, swamp and swale, has been regarded, as more or 

 less valuable, according to the quantity and quality of the grass pro- 

 duced. It not unfrequently holds the water that falls upon it, as 

 well as that which runs in from the surrounding hills, bringing down, 

 often, the choicest mineral elements of the soil, which sink beneath 

 the water, and are thus rendered nearly worthless until the water is 

 drained off. 



The more solid matter, found in a swamp, when drained, is, some- 

 times, peat; a substance of vegetable origin, more or less saturated 

 with water, consisting of roots and fibres in almost every stage of 

 decomposition, from the natural woody substance to the almost per- 

 fect black vegetable mould. Mr. Shipman's reclaimed swamp, in 

 Hadley, furnishes one of the best specimens of this quality, that has 

 come under the observation of the Committee. 



Mud, such as is found in some of these swamps, is a moist, soft 

 earth, diff"ering essentially from peat. Swale mud is more thoroughly 

 decomposed, than peat, and resembles it, less than it does muck, a 

 decomposition of vegetable matter — more completely disorganized 

 than peat. It is not so easy to draw a dividing line betAveen swamp 

 mud and muck, as it is to use the two words. The difference be- 

 tween them and peat, is very distinct and marked. Mud and muck 

 seem, generally, to be so entirely disorganized, as to leave scarce a 

 trace of vegetable substance, and, in some cases, none whatever. 

 The mud in the lowest parts of the land bordering upon the brooks, 

 in the eastern part of this county, is of this kind — and is so deep that 

 a hay-pole, twelve feet in length, may be pressed into it, without 

 touching bottom. 



Whether these mud swamps will ever be drained, it will be, prob- 

 ably, for some future generation to determine. If the work is ever 

 accomplished, it will be done by great expenditure of money and 

 labor. When drained, they will furnish most valuable lands for till- 

 age — which, in their unreclaimed state, are nearly valueless, except 

 as a dwelling place for toads, frogs, snakes, moles, snipes, woodcock 

 and blackbirds. Alas, for this numerous hoard of swamp aborigines, 

 when these low lands shall be reclaimed from the dominion of water, 

 and turned into rich fields of the very best tillage land, of which 



