REPORT ON FORESTS. 249 
are intersected by many bavs, salt ponds, thoroughfares and 
winding creeks. Thev yield thousands of tons of salt hay 
(Spartina junciz), and black grass (Juncus gerard?), which are 
extensively used for fodder and packing. It is transported op 
flat-boats or scows up the many rivers to the interior, and is also- 
baled and shipped to the neighboring sea-shore resorts and cities. 
Owing to the fact that these marshes already yield a good 
income, that is, a fair rate of interest on the amount invested, 
and probably more than cultivated fields would pay, by producing 
year after year a good grade of hay without any labor except 
the reaping, and a little ditching now and then, it would be a 
precarious investment to bank and drain them as has been done 
with similar land in Holland, except in the northeastern part 
of the state, where proximity to cities makes land more val- 
uable than in the southern part. These banked lands, although 
fertile, are unsatisfactory to till; the dykes are* a constant care 
and anxiety, and storms and high tides, besides other serious 
dangers, often cause irreparable damages. 
The reasons for mentioning these marshes in this connection 
are, firstly, they yield an abundance of fodder and litter, and 
secondly, the mud is an extremely rich fertilizer, consisting 
mainly of humus, but containing also lime, and the decomposed 
bodies of both macroscopic and microscopic organisms. It is an 
inexhaustible store of fertility. In it are the materials which 
the sandy soil of the interior needs most. By applying this mud. 
in the fall, so that the frost will pulverize and mellow it, and, 
the following summer, sowing a leguminous crop for green 
manure, the sandiest field is rendered so fertile that with 
intensive culture, including a regular supply of water and intel- 
ligent labor, it will produce fruits and vegetables of the finest 
* The banks are often seriously d: ged by the k-rat (Fiber zibethicus), an aquatic rat-like 
rodent. It yields a salable fur and is extensively trapped. They dig through a bank in all directions» 
causing it to leak and weakening it throughout in a way which is difficult to repair. They are prolific 
and must be combatted in various ways. Many encourage the presence of black snakes (Bascanion 
constrictor), which feed upon its young. A tight hemlock board or slab-fence is often constructed 
against the face of the bank, or small pilings are driven close together along its outer edge. Ditches 
should never be dug on both sides of a dyke, if so, the rats are very tond of channeling from ditch to 
ditch, If sand is used in the construction of the outer part of a bank, rats are less apt to disturb ir, 
because it caves easily and thus interferes with their digging. Willows should be planted on these banks 
and fascine and wattlework constructed on their faces. The great use of fascine and wattlework is not 
fully appreciated in America. The banks which worry the Jersey farmer would be little more than play 
to the enterprising Dutchman who, with patient toil, farms into the very jaws of the sea. He would even 
look with envious eyes on our shallow inland bays and would soon convert them into many acres of rich 
polder-land. 
