554 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



be among the last to make such a mistake, is made 

 to call Tluhhack, the famous ancestor of the short- 

 horns, by the name of Hidback. How many 

 more goodly names are so buried under these in- 

 excusable blunders, we may never know. It is 

 no excuse to say the handwriting is not plain. 

 A man that does not know the names of the 

 Apostles, has no business reading proof for the 

 New Testament. 



The present volume contains many valuable ar- 

 ticles. As its contents have before been noticed 

 in the Farmer, we will confine our remarks to a 

 few subjects which deserve the attention of many 

 of our readers. 



RECLAIMING SALT MARSHES. 



The article by j\Ir. Clift, of Stonington, Ct., on 

 "Salt Marshes, the mode of reclaiming them, and 

 their value," is of very great practical utility. 

 The index, by the way, refers to it as at page 243, 

 which is a mistake for 343. There is a vast ex- 

 tent of this marsh land, all along the Atlantic 

 coast, and as far up the rivers as the tide flows, 

 and we have never known of an acre of it that 

 has been thoroughly reclaimed, which has not 

 proved of great value. To thoroughly reclaim it, 

 the sea water must be excluded, and kept out ; for 

 although salt is an excellent article for manure, 

 when we get above three or four bushels to the 

 acre at a dose, it is too much for common crops, 

 although mangolds and some other crops are fond 

 of a higher seasoning. There is always fresh wa- 

 ter running into the sea, and of course, for the 

 streams that pass through the marsh, and for the 

 rain water, as well as for any leakage through the 

 dikes, there must be floodgates, opened and closed 

 like canal gates, by the water itself. We use the 

 ward dike, which primarily means a ditch, in the 

 sense of embankment, which has good authority. 

 A dike usually includes a ditch and bank, as con- 

 structed for drainage purposes. If, by means of 

 a dike, the salt water can be excluded, and fresh 

 water raised over the land, the salt will be washed 

 out far more readily. It will be recollected, that 

 salt does not go off by evaporation, which is, in- 

 deed, the very means used to separate it from wa- 

 ter, but washes downward. The freer the pas- 

 sage downward, the sooner will the salt marsh be 

 civilized into arable land. It is said that about 

 three years, in our climate, give sufficient time 

 for the salt to wash out, by rains, from salt marsh 

 so as to freshen it for ordinary cultivation. 



The experiments recorded by Mr. Clift would, 

 of themselves, be sufficient to show that these 

 marshes are readily adapted, not only to the pro- 

 duction of hay, in the largest quantities, but for 

 fruit gardens, market gardens and grain and hoed 

 crops. But all who have visited the immense 

 tracts of reclaimed marshes in England, or read 



the accounts of them, know very well that the 

 very heaviest crops of wheat in England grow on 

 just such lands. 



Much of the land reclaimed from the sea, in 

 Great Britain, has been rescued at once, from un- 

 der the tides, by building sea-walls, and this land, 

 which is a sort of silt or fine sand, soon becomes 

 good, arable soil. This is not, however, properly 

 salt marsh. The Lincolnshire Fens, on one level 

 of which there are 300,000 acres, seem to be very 

 much like our salt marshes, having a black soil of 

 varying depth, from one to six feet, and more. 

 We saw upon them crops of wheat ready for the 

 reaper, estimated, by good farmers, at fiSty-six 

 bushels to the acre, and it is not an uncommon 

 practice to follow such a ci'op with a crop of oats, 

 cut in with a drill without plowing or manuring, 

 a severity of cropping never thought of on any 

 other land, except in California, where two crops 

 of wheat are sometimes taken from one sowing, 

 the last being raised from the scattered seed of the 

 first, and known as a volunteer crop. 



To make salt marsh arable, we think it should 

 be regularly tile-drained. Mr. Clift has found 

 that the ordinary narrow open drains used in salt 

 marsh are sufficient for the drainage of these 

 lands, for the best grass crops, but such drains are 

 an obstruction to all cultivation, and by their lia- 

 bility to partial obstruction, are far less efi'ectual 

 than tiles. 



Mr. Clift suggests that where these marshes lie 

 in large tracts, and are too extensive for indi- 

 vidual capital, companies might be formed to re- 

 claim them. He gives accurate statements of sev- 

 eral experiments, in which every crop adapted to 

 the climate was found successful. One gentleman 

 has 500 acres, in New Jersey, a part of which he 

 has reclaimed, and gets from it two crops of grass 

 annually, which at $20 a ton, nets him $60 an 

 acre in New York market. He thinks his 500 

 acres will yield him $30,000 a year, clear income ! 



BREEDS OF SHEEP. 



Mr. Fay's short essay upon this subject con- 

 tains the true idea upon which it is for the inter- 

 est of New England farmers promptly to act; 

 namely, to stock their farms with sheep valuable 

 for the greatest yield of both wool and mutton. 

 Climate, soil and market are the three considera- 

 tions in choosing] the breed for a given locality. 

 The climate and soil of New England are well 

 adapted to almost any breed. Perhaps the Lei- 

 cester, as being too delicate and luxurious in its 

 habits, may be an exception. The markets of 

 New England are near enough and large enough, 

 to consume all the wool and mutton likely to be 

 produced. Indeed, Mr. Fay states that more 

 sheep are annually sold in Brighton and Cam- 

 bridge markets, than are raised in all New Eng- 



