1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



505 



For the New England Farmer. 



SWAMPS AND MEADOWS. 



Although the "theme of my discourse" may 

 seem an uninteresting one to some who may 

 glance at the heading of this article, yet if there 

 are 



"Sermons in stones, 

 Bonks in running brooks, and good in everything," 



why is it not possible to derive a little benefit 

 from an investigation, however slight, of old 

 swamps and bog meadows. Certainly great good 

 is already being realized from these natural reser- 

 voirs of fertility, in the form of muck for the 

 compost heap, and peat for fuel. 



As the soil of New England is comparatively 

 poor and unproductive, unless much skilful labor 

 is expended upon it, the all-wise Creator has, 

 without doubt, formed these rich deposits of veg- 

 etable matter to supply in part, if man will but 

 make use of it, this want of fertility. Future gen- 

 erations will appreciate much better than the 

 present one does, the inestimable value, to the 

 farmer, of these lands, which were once considered 

 almost worthless. But aside from their material 

 value, I wish to speak more particularly of these 

 places as subjects for curiosity and geological re- 

 search. 



Innumerable swamps and muck meadows are 

 scattered throughout New England. Some are 

 situated upon the margins of ponds, lakes and 

 rivers, others, frequently of large extent, have 

 only a small brook running through them ; and 

 others of smaller area are entirely surrounded by 

 unbroken ranges of hills, having no visible outlet 

 or inlet. Those which border upon the shores of 

 the Atlantic, are denominated salt marshes, and 

 doubtless, differ somewhat in their formation from 

 those lying inland, but I have never had an op- 

 portunity to examine them particularly. 



Adjoining the farm where I reside, and partly 

 upon it, there is a swamp containing about fifty 

 acres. It has a brook running through it, which 

 is fed by springs around the margin of the swamp, 

 and empties into a pond near by. The swamp is 

 covered by a growth of white, and pitch pine, 

 American larch or tamerack, maple, spruce, and 

 white birch. Some of the trees are more than a 

 foot in diameter. There is a tradition that a hun- 

 dred and fifty, or two hundred years ago, this 

 swamp was a smooth meadow, covered with grass, 

 which was all cut for fodder, as good English hay, 

 in those times, was very scarce, so far back into 

 the wilderness as Groton, (if it had, at that time, 

 an English name,) was then considered to be. 



While digging muck in this swamp, I have 

 made some discoveries, which, although not so 

 curious and important as some geologists have 

 made, yet, perhaps, are worthy of mention. At 

 diff"erent depths, varying from one to five feet, I 

 have found stumps of pine and larch in the posi- 

 tion in which they grew. Some of these stumps 

 must have been nearly two feet in diameter ; and 

 I have frequently found one large stump directly 

 above another, v/ith marks of fire upon their bark 

 and roots. There M'ere, also, and generally below 

 the stumps, the remains of the leaves and stalks 

 of flags. Sometimes the trunk of a large tree 

 would be found lying across the line of the ditch, 

 with its heart quite hard and sound. 



From these facts, J should conclude that a long 



time ago, the swamp was several feet lower than 

 at present, and that it was sometimes covered 

 with flags and grass, and sometimes with trees of 

 a much larger growth than those which are now 

 growing upon it, and, from finding bits of coal, 

 charred stumps, &c., that it has several times been 

 burned over. There seems to be an accumulation 

 of water under this bed of muck and peat, for af- 

 ter the ditch has been dug to the depth of five or 

 six feet, the bottom will very frequently rise up, 

 and bursting open, the Avater will rush through, 

 and fill the ditch in a few minutes. 



There is a deep basin, or "bog-hole," near this 

 swamp, called the "punch bowl," from its resem- 

 blance in form to that bowl which is so alluring 

 and fatal to many. It is about fifteen rods in di- 

 ameter, and entirely surrounded by a ridge of 

 gravelly hills, or, as the geologist would probably 

 say, altered drift, or oesars, which vary in height, 

 from twenty-five to forty feet. This basin is filled 

 to an unknown depth, with the usual deposit of 

 muck, and its surface, except a small, oi>en space 

 nearly in its centre, is covered by a growth of 

 moss, bushes and trees, of the same kinds that 

 grow upon the swamp, except that there is no 

 pine. About twelve years since, the open space 

 in its centre was covered with water, and a poker- 

 ish looking place it was, too, at certain times. 

 Standing upon the rim of the "bowl," in a sun- 

 shiny day, the beholder could see, that what ap- 

 peared to be the bottom of the miniature lake, 

 was of a light green color, with the exception of 

 two jet black holes of a circular form, and eight 

 or ten feet in diameter. When I was a boy, the 

 sight of these — to me, unfathomable holes — would 

 almost make me shudder. 



But the march of improvement has altered the 

 face and stomach (if the expression is allowable,)' 

 of this ugly bog very much, for I have this year 

 picked several bushels of cranberries over these 

 same holes of which I had such a dread in boy- 

 hood. But the thin covering of cranberry roots 

 and vines is a very shaky concern, (like some po- 

 litical platforms of the present day,) and at first, 

 I was somewhat afraid that, after all, one of these 

 horrid openings would swallow me up in its black 

 abyss. The cause of this great change lies in the 

 simple fact that a railroad has been built almost 

 directly through the middle of the "bowl." An 

 outlet has thus been made for its stagnant wa- 

 ters, and the gravel, of which an immense amount 

 was dumped into it, has pressed the muck more 

 compactly together, making the surface a little 

 higher and dryer ; and the cranberry vines have 

 spontaneously spread themselves over the open 

 space left by the waters. 



In my explorations in muck beds, I have not 

 yet discovered an elephant, but it is possible that 

 I may, for it is only a few years since tliat the 

 remains of one were found in Vermont, beneath a 

 deep bed of muck. In the same part of New 

 England, the skeleton of a small whale has also 

 been found imbedded in the blue clay, a deposit 

 made long before the vegetable deposit com- 

 menced. 



It would be interesting to know the length of 

 time which has elapsed since these swamps and 

 meadows began to form, but that is a point which 

 is — like many others in the world's history — verv 

 difficult to decide upon. Many thousands, and 

 perhaps millions of years ago, according to geol- 



