6 
be prohibitive the land may be flooded to any depth and that depth 
maintained. Reclamation in this way is successfully carried on, but 
only water-loving crops can be grown during the sweetening process. 
CULTIVATION OF MARSH. 
After the land has been diked and ditched the best method of culti- 
vation must be settled upon. If the soil is a tidal mud or silt, without 
a covering of any kind, the cultivation can be commenced at once or 
at least as soon as part of the salt is leached out. A great variety of 
crops is adapted to such soils. Cleaning the land of all weed seed and 
giving it an opportunity to be thoroughly aerated and weathered, by 
planting for one or two years some cultivated crop, such as corn or sor- 
shum, is recommended. After that time, the best crop to select is one 
suited to the locality; whether it be truck, hay, cabbage, celery, or small 
fruits will depend on the market and taste of the cultivator. 
If, however, the tidal silt or mud, or eel-grass clay, as it is generally 
known, is not at the surface, but is covered by a sod formed of the 
partly decayed stems and roots of the salt grasses, a very different 
method of treatment is necessary In order to get the soil in condition 
to cultivate. If'this sod is thin and well rotted, disking, deep plowing, 
and thorough cultivation will generally break it up and enable a good 
seed bed to be prepared; but when it is a foot or more deep, and is in turn 
underlain by half decomposed sod for a depth of a foot or two, the 
breaking up and incorporation with the underlying soil in a short time 
by cultivation are impossible. The best method of subduing such soil 
is to burn off the sod. When it is fairly dry to a depth of 12 inches 
fires should be started at a number of places and the sod allowed to 
slowly smoulder. The burning should be carried on until the eel-grass 
clay is close to the surface, or until the heavy roots are consumed. 
Then by rolling and plowing the soil can be worked into condition. 
Burning was formerly a practice in common use in European agricul- 
ture, and is yet continued in the marsh soils of northern Germany, 
Denmark, and Holland. The smoke of this burning is said at times 
to be noticeable as far as Italy. The sod is there burned to a depth of 
10 or 12 inches only, and is then cultivated for from five to ten years 
and burned again. 
Such a practice will in time burn the entire peat of the swamps and 
leave the underlying soil bare. The practice is very prodigal of organic 
matter and is not to be reeommended in America, especially since there 
are crops which grow to best advantage in peat. In celery areas, 
where such peaty soils are handled, burning is not the usual practice; 
in fact, the organic matter is the desirable part of the soil for the pro- 
duction of celery. In such areas some cultivated crop is planted for 
one or two years to give the peat an opportunity to decay. Rather 
