ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 91 



from the earth to take its place. The plan works admir- 

 ably ; the milk remains sweet long enough for the cream 

 to rise perfectly, and the butter is kept cool and hard. 

 The whole cost of the cellar was but five dollars. 



Improvement of the Marshes. — By a comparison of the 

 statistics of the marshes as given in the tables on pp. 17, 18, 

 it will be seen that there is a very large extent still lying 

 unimproved. The whole area of the marshes in the 

 county, is 58,824 acres. The number of acres from 

 which the tide is banked out, is 1,918; and the number 

 of acres of salt-marsh connected with farms, and in part, 

 at least, meadow, is 17,223. The low price of land has 

 heretofore prevented the investment of much capital in 

 improvements of this sort; but the rapid advances now 

 making in the agriculture of the county, cannot but attract 

 attention to the opportunities for such improvements, and 

 the benefits to be derived from them. 



When the flow of the tide is shut ofi" from the marshes 

 by proper banks and sluices, they soon become fresh, and 

 are capable of being improved for meadows or for cultiva- 

 tion. The marshes, in regard to their improvement, may 

 be divided into three kinds. — 1. Those with a mud bot- 

 tom, or covered with a thick layer of mud. — 2. Those 

 made up mostly of turf and grass roots. — 3. Those which 

 have a muck or swamp bottom. 



1. The first kind having already a solid bottom, and 

 the elements of fertility in their substance, are easily 

 improved. They settle but little, and can at once be 

 brought into fresh meadow; or they may be cultivated, 

 when they will produce luxuriant crops of corn, wheat, 



