176 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [SEPTEMBER 
best places ; but there are parts, particularly on the marsh longest 
reclaimed, which show more or less exhaustion.’ Such marsh 
may have its fertility largely restored by fresh mud brought in 
by the sea whenallowed behind the dikes. Third, the water con- 
ditions of the marsh soil are such that the vegetation is some- 
what less affected by dry seasons than is that of the uplands, 
and a bad hay year for the uplands is not so bad for the marshes. 
The causes of all these peculiarities in the marsh fertility will be 
discussed later. 
The result of this combination of good qualities is, naturally, 
to give the marshes a highvalue. Marsh situated near the towns, 
and well-placed for drainage, is worth upwards of $180.00 to 
$200.00 per acre; there are large areas valued at $100.00 an 
acre, while prices range, of course, from these downwards. 
Il. Mode of reclaiming the marshes——The original marsh as 
built by the sea bears a sparse vegetation of typical salt marsh 
plants, of which only a few of the grasses, and these to a limited 
extent, are useful. To reclaim this marsh three things are 
needed: (1) to shut out the sea, (2) to wash out most of the 
salt, (3) to provide for the removal of the fresh water falling as 
rain or draining from the upland. The sea is shut out by dikes 
of the usual sort. These are triangular in section, built of the 
marsh mud itself, often with a core of stakes and brush. Against 
the open sea they may be six feet high, and they are protected 
from the wash of the waves by lines of stakes or piling and 
loose stones ; but along the rivers they are much lower, for up 
the rivers the marsh itself is progressively higher. The removal 
of the salt takes place naturally by action of the falling rain, 
which washes it through the drains into the sea. It requires 
three to four years in newly reclaimed marsh to do this suf- 
ficiently to allow the more useful grasses to grow, and during 
this time there is an entirely natural succession of plants accom- 
panying the freshening, whose kinds and sequences will presently 
be discussed. To allow the rain-water to drain off is all-impor- 
tant, not only for removal of the salt and for proper aeration of 
8 This is not to be confused with degeneration through bog-formation on account 
of defective drainage, a common but morphologically very different phenomenon. 
