9L. XXII. NO. 30. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



155 



From the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 



SWAMP LAND, 

 ^o portion of a farm is more productive, or is 

 tained in fertility at so Utile cost as that which 

 originally been a swamp. These low situa- 

 18 having for a long course of time received the 

 efils derived from the high grounds that siir- 

 iid them in the washing down by the rains of 

 vegetable matter, from the leaves and decayed 

 ber which being stopped, or strained in the pas- 

 e of the water through the swamps, accumulated 

 ) a deop strata of vegetable earth ; and when 

 is opened to the sun and drained by art, it 

 ns the best and generally the deepest soil. 

 thin the last twenty or thirty years the atten- 

 1 of our .'"ariners has been attracted to these pre- 

 us waste spots, the long unmolested homes of 

 frogs and niuskrats ; and every successful effort, 

 all have been, has attracted attention, and kin- 

 d new desires of imitation and profit in their re- 

 ctive neighborhoods. And tliese, since agricul- 

 al journals have become common, have taken a 

 le range, and the successful efforts, on the wings 

 the welcome sheet, have been spread coexten- 

 e with the country. But after all of what has 

 sn done, is there not yet much to be accomplish- 

 ? No one can ride forty miles in our State, 

 d not witness many spots still soaked with water, 

 a slate of unproductiveness. How few were the 

 Jians in number, compared to our present popu- 

 ion ; and yet this disparity, great as it is, is not 

 rpassed by what we are capable of, compared 

 th the present. 



When all our lands shall be rendered produc- 

 |e that now are waste, and those we now till 

 iall be improved to their capacity, then and not 

 itil then will New England be full ; and then the 

 erfliiw of its population may seek new abodes 

 herever the prospect may open before them. Ef- 

 rts have been and will doubtless continue to be 

 ade to hold out inducements for the virgin soil of 

 le west and southwest ; these efforts have drawn 

 any, and will draw more to these regions, led by 

 le spirit of adventure and the hope of gain, sofas- 

 nating to youth, and as we are all of one coun- 

 y it should pain no individual that such is the 

 ise. But ask the traveller of the whole g:Iobe, 

 iquire of the sojourner of the west or south if he 

 ler saw a people with a larger portion of the ele- 

 lents of happiness, or a sweeter home than is here 

 I fair New England. 

 Before we go deeper upon this point, it may be 

 ell to listen to the spot whence we started, a sen- 

 ment that .-nany an emigrant has painfully felt 

 ■hen sickness or unfulfilled hopes have been his, 

 nd the poetry and romance of youth have been 

 upplanted by sober reality. 



In the draining of low lands we have nothing in 

 lis country that can compare with the efforts in 

 Ingland made upon the fens and peat bogs of Lin- 

 olnsliire. What we have done has been accom- 

 lishcd more quickly, for this great undertaking 

 here commenced even before this country was co- 

 Dnized, and has gone on, and is going on still. 

 fint sums of money have been expended, and large 

 ;imntitie3 of land equal to any in the Island, have 

 icea rendered productive. A number of rivers 

 ailing into this level, which is as low as the ad- 

 acent ocean in many parts, has presented great 

 lifficulties ; but most of these by drains, dykes, 

 ind finally by steam, have been overcome. This 

 ast contrivance ia an enormous wheel with capa- 



cious buckets; this is turned by means of a steam 

 engine, and elevates the water of a vast tract of 

 country, which is conducted to this point by drains, 

 over a dyke, whence it runs off leaving the fertile 

 land in a state for cultivation. 



Our country is not yet so thickly settled as to 

 justify such an undertaking even if we had a simi- 

 lar tract of bog land. But such success is calcula- 

 ted to animate us to accomplish what we may have 

 to do. We have very many swamps and wet mea- 

 dows which could be easily laid dry, at a small ex- 

 pense of labor, which could be applied when we 

 could do hardly any thing else. Too often we are 

 prone to look far away for benefits that could be 

 equalled or surpassed by others found at our doors, 

 and it is worth the attention of each of us who has 

 still within his fences a piece of low wet land, 

 whether in bushes or cleared, to try if it cannot be 

 rendered more productive, and if money could not 

 be better applied in draining it than by the pur- 

 chase of additional acres. 



Home Improvement. 



or two. I kept one day's milk by itself, 15 1-2 

 ([iiarts on the 15th June, and churned it. All the 

 milk was churned, as it appeared to be unnecessa- 

 ry to cream it. I had 3 lbs. 8 oz. of butler ready 

 for the table. The next day it was also tried, and 

 it produced 3 lbs. 4 oz. The first day above, the 

 milk was put in two pans — the other day, only in 

 one pan, which may have made the difference of 

 the quarter of a pound. 



In September she only gave 11 or 12 quarts a 

 day, and made JO lbs. of butler a week — further, I 

 have not tried her milk. She was so lame during 

 this lime, as scarcely to be able to move. She 

 was kept on good pasture, and besides this, I fed 

 her night and morning with a bushel of cut hay 

 and 8 quarts of shorts, which is still her regular 

 feed. Peter H. Scuenck. 



Prom the American Agriculturist. 



EXTRAORDINARY BUTTER COW. 



Mr. Schenck has given us below an account of 

 the most extraordinary butter cow we ever heard 

 of Yet, notwithstanding this, our readers may 

 rely upon it as being strictly correct. To those 

 who do not know Mr. Shenck, we can only say, 

 that he is one of the most reputable citizens of 

 New York, and not at all likely to deceive either 

 himself or others. We merely make these remarks 

 to silence all cavil. The cow in question is poll- 

 ed, having no horns, and is evidently a three 

 tourths bred Durham. In form, color, and several 

 other charncteristics, she exactly resembles ani- 

 mals which we have seen in England, bred from 

 red Galloways by Durham bulls. She is above 

 the ordinary size ; with a good spread of hip; a 

 long head ; low, deep brisket ; handles well ; and 

 shows the largest milk veins which we ever saw. 

 Her color is red and while. She was very low in 

 flesh when we looked at her in October, and so 

 lame as to walk with difficulty. We much regret 

 that she could not have been bred to a bull of deep 

 milking family, her stock, then, would have been 

 invaluable. 



Ahltetcan, Dutchess Co., Oct. dlh, 1843. 



The cow Emma was nine years old last spring. 

 I got her when a calf from Mrs. Thomas Storm at 

 Kipp's bay. She was from a cow that she had 

 called the cream breed. This is all the pedigree 

 that I can give. 



I never till the summer of 1842 kept her milk 

 separate from three other cows which I have, and 

 then, for experiment,! tried it only one week. She 

 then gave 18 quarts per day, and her milk made 15 

 lbs. of butter. During this time she was kept on 

 grass only. The past summer she received an in- 

 jury in her spine, and in consequence of this had 

 barely (he power to get up, and hardly lived 

 through calving. 



On the 21st May 1 commenced keeping an ac- 

 count of her milk, and ihe butter it made. She at 

 no time exceeded IG quarts per day, and on the 

 10th June, being 21 days, she had made G5 1-2 

 lbs. of butler of the best quality. This was so in- 

 credible, that I could scarcely believe my own sen- 

 ses, although I weighed the butter at every churn- 

 ing myself. I thought 1 would try again for a day 



Guano New Enterprise. For some time past 



a kind of secret expedition has been filled out at 

 this port, and the vessels that have already sailed 

 are under sealed orders, which are not to be open- 

 ed until the ships have arrived at a given latitude 

 and longitude across the line. In spite of the se- 

 crecy that has been observed, it is now becoming 

 well known that the expedition has sailed for an 

 island said to be somewhere to the east of the Cape 

 of Good Hope ; and the speculation is likely to bo 

 a lucrative one to those engaged in it, for it is said 

 that the island in question contains guano of a 

 richer description than any hitherto known here. 

 Several vessels have already sailed with imple- 

 ments of every description, as boats constructed 

 for the purpose of carrying the cargo from the 

 shore to the ships, namely: Irishmen, barrows, 

 shovels, pickaxes, &c. A number of other ships, 

 all of large burthen, are about to follow. In Lon- 

 don and Liverpool, vessels are fitting out for the 

 same destination, but the Clyde shippers have had 

 the start, and, we trust, will benefit by it. As the 

 price of guano is at present about £14 per ton, the 

 speculators bid fair to make an excellent thing of 

 it, as they will have the cargo for the taking. We 

 understand the speculators are two mercantile 

 firms in Glasgow, who have chartered the vessels. 

 — Greenock Obstrver. 



New York State Agricultural Societt. 

 We see by the following extract of a letter pub- 

 lished in the Cultivator of November, inst., that 

 Mr. Alexander Walsh, is the originator of this 

 valuable society. The letter was addressed to 

 Mr. Wadsworth, President of the State Society by 

 Mr. Walsh, as an apology for his non-attendance 

 at its recent Fair. 



Lajisingburgh, Sept. 18, 1843. 



Dear Sir— In consequence of many urgent 

 calls for my presence here, I have been compelled 

 to absent myself from the Annual Fair of the Stale 

 Agricultural Society. You may rest assured, how- 

 ever, that the progressive annual growth of the 

 higherto unowned child of my brain — the State 

 Agricultural Society — now almost in its twelfth 

 year, and brought into existence by an anonymous 

 advertisement inserted by me in the Albany Argus 

 of 1832, has afforded me the utmost gratification ; 

 and my word for it, no parental exertion shall be 

 wanting on my part to aid in bringing it to full 

 maturity."— riot/ Baity fl'liig. 



Diligence is the mistress of success. Constant- 

 ly pursuing his task, the mouse cuts off the cable. 



