No. 144.] 521 



acres per day. The shores of Long Island, in many parts, are 

 skirted by such meadows, and unless wanted for building lots as 

 the towns increase, they remain without improvement. 



Many thickly settled places about New- York are built on the 

 swamps, by carting the adjacent hills upon them. Part of Jersey 

 City and Williamsburgh are so built. All of those farmers who 

 migrate westward from New Jersey, Long Island, etc , could be 

 supplied with better farms, nearer a market, by a restoration of 

 these meadows. - Nor is it confined to these localities alone, for 

 Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and many other States, 

 are similarly situated. It is true that the same kind of treatment 

 may not answer for all localities, but nature points out to the 

 commonest understanding the means by which it may be attained. 

 The flr>t thing to be done is to drain ofi' the water. This may 

 often be done by finding the lowest point, and securing an outlet 

 to a still lower one. Sometimes we find the meadow bounded on 

 one side by a river, and on the other by highlands — a levelling 

 instrument will generally show that a slight and gradual fall 

 occurs towards the river, and the running of an ordinary mole 

 plow, in straight lines from the river to the highland, often ren- 

 ders them dry at once; for if this plow be run every twenty feet, 

 we have open tubes at this distance apart, of three inches diame- 

 ter, which permits the continued departure of so many streams 

 of water, and renders the suriace in a proper condition for the 

 first tillage. When the surface of the meadow is too soft to sus- 

 tain the cattle or horses for the mole plowing, then an occasional 

 ditch should first be dug from the river to the highland, and per- 

 haps one cross ditch near the highlands to cut off and collect the 

 springs, leading down the water to the river through one of the 

 lateral drains. Then tlie mole plow may be run between, each 

 of its cuts always commencing fairly at the lowest point, so as to 

 ensure the exit of its contents. In some such meadows or swamps, 

 one ditch will render forty feet on each side tit for sustaining cat- 

 tle in a \^\\ days, and this being worked l>y the mole plow, in 

 turn dries adjacent portions, so that by occasional rests of a few 

 days the whole may be drained. 



