54 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



one of the objects of this article to present a brief 

 statement in relation to a work which they have 

 had in progress during the past two years, hop- 

 ing that others in the same circumstances may 

 profit by their example. 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF LITTLE CEDAR SWAMP. 



This name is applied to a tract of low land one 

 mile in length and of variable width, comprising 

 some two hundred acres in the east part of the 

 town. This land has been usually covered with 

 water during a portion of the year, and has pro- 

 duced only a small quantity of very inferior hay. 

 It is the property of eighteen proprietors, a part 

 of whom having given the subject considerable 

 thought, have long desired to make the experi- 

 ment of thorough drainage, but being unable to 

 convince all the owners of the expediency of such 

 a movement, were not able to get the enterprise 

 started. They resolved in the summer of 1861 

 to avail themselves of the provisions of the law 

 for the improvement of meadows and swamps. 

 (See chapter 148, page 750, General Statutes of 

 Massachusetts.) 



Their petition to the Superior Court was an- 

 swered by the appointment of William F. Ellis 

 and Elias Grout, of Ashland, and David Fiske, of 

 Framingham, Commissioners, to prosecute the 

 work. The first named gentleman being a civil 

 engineer, and the other two having had experi- 

 ence in improving meadow land, the appointment 

 was considered peculiarly appropriate. The par- 

 ties were heard, a survey made, a plan agreed 

 upon, and about five hundred rods of ditch opened. 

 The main channel is four feet in depth, and eight 

 feet wide at the top and syc at the bottom. The 

 other ditches are four feet in width and of depth 

 adapted to grade. 



As these ditches extend entirely across the 

 meadow, each proprietor can connect cross ditch- 

 es with these and drain his own land and make 

 such improvements as he deems for his interest ; 

 it being the design of the Commissioners to pro- 

 ceed only as far as the protection of the law was 

 necessary, leaving the completion of the work to 

 the parties interested. The cost of the improve- 

 ments already completed is estimated at five hun- 

 dred dollars, which is assessed upon the owners 

 in proportion to the benefit which each receives. 

 A small plot of this land has already been plowed, 

 and was planted with potatoes the past season, 

 but in consequence of the severe rains did not suc- 

 ceed. A plot which was topdressed with sand 

 two years ago produced a superior quality of hay 

 the past season. 



The question which the proprietors desire to 

 have answered now is, How is this vast tract of 

 meadow to be reclaimed ? Shall we plow it ? 

 Shall we burn it ? Shall we dress it with sand ? 

 And if so to what depth ? At what distance apart 

 will it be necessary to cut cross ditches ? Replies 

 to any of these queries are respectfully solicited 

 by the proprietors. Viator. 



The Pine Leaf Scale.— Some time back Mr. 

 A. A. Crampton, of Coal Valley, 111., forwarded 

 to tin? office a number of Scotch pine leaves, (pi- 

 nus sylvestris,) covered with insects which he says 

 "are destroying his finest trees, causing the leaves 

 to turn yellow and fall, the tree ultimately dying." 

 — Prairie Farmer. 



"WOOD ASHES AND CHARCOAL FOB 

 WHEAT. 



In a paper read some years since before a meet- 

 ing at the State House, Albany, N. Y., Dr. Lee, 

 an able friend of agriculture, presented some very 

 valuable suggestions relative to wheat culture. 

 In the analysis of Sprengel it is asserted that the 

 mineral proportion of it amounts to only about 

 three per cent, of the whole ; and that in wood 

 ashes we have very nearly the same mineral in- 

 gredients, and in almost precisely the same pro- 

 portions. Hence the inference that soils most de- 

 ficient in wheat growing principles would be great- 

 ly benefited, if not actually made capable of pro- 

 ducing excellent crops, simply by a small dress- 

 ing of ashes. 



As regards charcoal, the expense of supplying 

 a sufficient quantity to the soil would not be 

 large. Charcoal is not a manure in itself, prop- 

 erly so considered, but merely a caterer of pabu- 

 lum. Twenty bushels of finely pulverized charcoal 

 to the acre, would probably be sufficient for most 

 soils, and as, from its well known indestructibili- 

 ty it endures unchanged for years, the application 

 would scarcely require repeating oftener than 

 every eighth or tenth season, to produce unmiti- 

 gated, its most salutary effects. As regards ash- 

 es, Dr. Lee says : "Being but slowly decomposed 

 by the vital action of plants, ashes are an endur- 

 ing fertilizer when compared with stable manure. 

 Mixed with quick lime, their good effects are more 

 speedily obtained. Lime will render alumina, 

 either in the soil or in leached ashes, soluble in 

 water, so it can enter the minute pores of the 

 roots. Clay in the soil is always combined with a 

 large portion of silica ; and before it has been 

 exhausted by continual cropping, it holds in com- 

 bination considerable potash and soda. Lime, 

 by combining with alumina the basis of clay, lib- 

 erates these alkalies and silica, which uniting 

 chemically, form soluble silicates of potash and 

 soda." These also enter into the circulating nour- 

 ishment of plants, and are decomposed in the 

 stems of grasses and cereals. The silica goes to 

 make vegetable bone, to keep the plant upright ; 

 while the potash and soda go back to the earth, 

 to dissolve, as before, another portion of sand to 

 be also absorbed and transformed into bone. It 

 is in this way that a few ashes, applied to a sandy 

 soil, will enable grass and grain to take up the 

 eighty-one per cent, of flint found in their ashes. 

 Lime will do the same thing on clay soils, for the 

 simple reason that they generally do not lack pot- 

 ash, soda and magnesia." 



In relation to the organic elements of this veg- 

 etable — a subject as yet but imperfectly under- 

 stood by the great mass of practical agriculturists, 

 Dr. L. remarks : 



