PLANTING ON MARSHY OR^SWAMPY LANDS. 151 



Wet grounds are called either bogs or marshes or 

 swamps. Bogs are the softest grounds, and often too 

 soft to bear a man. Marshes or fens are less soft, but 

 very wet ; however, they bear a man. Sivamps are soft 

 and spongy but sustain man and beast, and are often 

 pastured. The subsoil, mostly, is of sandy structure. 

 If these wee grounds contain a good proportion of 

 minerals and mineral combinations with vegetable 

 matter, they afford the best opportunity for raising 

 every cultivated fruit. But commonly this kind of 

 soil is too porous and does not possess the consistency 

 required by plant vegetation for its vigorous growth. 

 Should it be possible to overcome this obstacle by 

 adding sand or clay to the surface soil there is no artifi- 

 cial meadow which will, under proper treatment, pro- 

 duce more grass and fodder than such a natural mea- 

 dow. If such meadows can be drained even only by 

 forming raised beds, with deep ditches, every crop 

 could be successfully raised upon them. But most 

 localities of this kind cannot be drained, and being 

 exposed to repeated inundations by rivers, there is no 

 ether means of utilizing them than by growing forest- 

 trees. The preparation of the soil, in this case con- 

 sists in burning over the top of the soil, in doing 

 which, care has to be taken that the fire should not 

 penetrate too deeply into the soil and consume the 

 entire vegetable mould, for then the soil would lose most 

 of its fertility, and produce only shrubs and mullen 

 stalks. But if only the top of the surface soil is burnt, 

 the mixing of the ashes with the remaining soil renders 

 it very fertile, and planting may be begun in the fol- 

 lowing spring. 



Another means to prepare swampy grounds for tree 

 culture is to dig out narrow but deep ditches at the 

 proper distance apart, and spread the dugout upon the 



