THE RECLAMATION OF BOGS AND SWAMPS. 69 
Treatment such as we have described forms a kind of crust 
which seems to give the better grasses good root hold, and in 
moulding, any soil will do, even if only sand; but the richer 
and heavier it is the better. 
When the reclamation of swampy land is under con- 
sideration, it should be remembered that inferior marsh hay is 
only worth from sos. to 70s. per ton, whilst good litter 
commands from 20s. to 30s. per ton; therefore, unless the 
improvements are thoroughly and efficiently carried out, they 
had better be left alone, as it would be a fatal mistake to 
destroy a quantity of good litter in order to secure a miserable 
hay crop, or perhaps no hay at all. 
The great advantage to be looked for by the reclaimer is the 
feed he hopes to obtain, because, although reclaimed bogs will 
not produce inordinately on a wet and cold summer, when hay 
and feed is so plentiful and store cattle so dear it does not 
pay to buy them, and often spring purchases turn out not to be 
worth their original cost in the autumn, yet during a hot, dry 
season, when both nay and fodder are scarce, and complaints 
are rife from all sides of starving cattle and burnt-up pastures,. 
these reclaimed bogs and swamps (favoured by the sun’s rays) 
produce feed of an abnormally fine quality, and in quantity 
what is truly astonishing. 
Most of the marsh lands of East Anglia, where the rivers are 
salt or brackish from the tide, have a sub-soil of alluvial clay, 
which produces the finest pasture, and will fatten cattle in 
summer without artificial assistance. This sub-soil is also 
excellent for banking, wall making, and of late years has been. 
used considerably for the purpose of manufacturing bricks. 
In some places the turf is but a thin veneer to the bog 
underneath, and the nearer one approaches to the uplands the 
more will the depth of the bog prevail. Near to the uplands 
peat is the more predominant sub-soil, and in cutting dykes 
it is a wise course to use the excavations for moulding 
