54 PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



The only large example of diked and improved marshes in the north- 

 eastern United States is at Green Harbor, Mass., where 1,200 acres 

 have been won to tillage, about one-half being used for hay fields 

 and the other for different crops. The result obtained in the farm- 

 ing of this land is excellent. Asparagus has produced large crops 

 continuously for more than twenty years without the use of any 

 fertilizer. 



Prof. Milton Whitney, Chief of the Bureau of Soils, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, some years ago drew up the follow- 

 ing statement at the request of the writer, concerning the value of 

 reclaimed swamp land: 



Swamp lands, by virtue of their position, become the repository of highly fertile 

 material washed from the uplands by the rains. As a general rule, the immediate 

 surface of any soil is the most fertile portion of that soil, resulting from the fact that 

 this surface material is in physical condition, and most exposed to the action of the 

 weather, the sun, rains, and air. This surface is the first portion removed during 

 rains, and is the portion carried down into the swamps and deposited. When erosion 

 goes on at such a rapid rate that both the surface and the underlying raw soil are 

 washed away, the resulting bottom land deposit is frequently sterile. Witness the 

 mud flats and swamps along the Sacramento River, in California, which have been 

 covered with mud from the hydraulic mines of the Sierra Nevadas. Here large areas 

 have been ruined by the mud, and will not become fertile until the weather has 

 acted upon the material long enough to make the soil an acceptable medium for plant 

 growth. Fortunately, most of our lowlands and swamps receive only the more gentle 

 washing or the most fertile materials from the uplands. 



Swamp lands contain an unusual amount of organic matter, and for that reason 

 are easy to maintain in proper tilth, light to work, and warm. From their low position, 

 water is generally abundant, or easy to obtain for irrigation by pumping or diversion 

 from nearby streams. 



Swamp lands and tide marshes are considered the most valuable of lands in the 

 world's older countries. Their inherent fertility is recognized, and the ease with 

 which they are cultivated and irrigated is greatly appreciated. In England for two 

 hundred years the tide lands have been under reclamation, and to-day over 1,000,000 

 acres are in a "matchless state of fertility." 



In Holland extensive areas have been reclaimed from the sea. The greater part 

 of the country lies at or below the level of the sea, and is reclaimed from a jungle of 

 swamps and savannas. Holland to-day represents one of the most successful attempts 

 at swamp reclamation. Lakes have been drained by diking and pumping, and plans 

 are now on foot to drain the Zuyder Zee, an arm of the ocean. 



In our own country swamp reclamation has been carried out on a large scale in the 

 Middle Western States. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin have great 

 areas of productive land once swamp but now the most fertile and reliable land in 

 those States. The tide marshes around Puget Sound, in Washington, have been 

 lying untouched until within the last few years, but the recent great influx of Scandi- 

 navians has resulted in a movement toward the reclamation of these lands, and excel- 

 lent farms are being established. 



In California one of the greatest areas of swamp peat land in the world lies in the 

 Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Over 1,500,000 acres of peat from 6 to 40 feet thick 

 are ready for reduction in productive capacity, and to-day large areas are being 

 reclaimed. Yields of 500 bushels of potatoes, 6,000 pounds of asparagus, 60 bushels 

 of barley and oats have been common, and with proper farming such yields should 

 continue to be common. 



