9 
amount of soluble matter (2.16 per cent), which an analysis showed 
to be almost entirely from sea water, would prevent useful plant growth 
other than salt grasses. The drainage of this flat would permit the 
washing out of this salt. 
Two marshes on Center Island which are being drained were examined. 
These marshes—an inner marsh and an outer marsh—are separated by 
a narrow neck. Across this neck a causeway had been built and sluice 
gates placed in the culvert under the causeway. The gates were not 
carefully watched and the tide water backed up on the inner marsh sey- 
eral times. Notwithstanding this, the inner marsh was much fresher. 
The outer marsh, however, was covered at high tide twice a day and 
contained a large amount of salt. Both of these marshes had a sod 
about 1 foot thick and below this was decomposing sod to a depth of 
3 feet and then came the eel-grass mud, very similar to that col- 
lected in the west end of Lloyds Harbor. 
Samples No. 5374 and No. 5375 were taken from the outer marsh 
and represent the sod and decomposing grass roots and the underlying 
eel-grass clay, respectively. The plant food analysis of the clay shows 
it to be similar to the mud from Lloyds Harbor. The amount. of soluble 
salt in both soil and subsoil is seen to be high for plants other than salt 
erasses. The sod is so light and tough that to decompose it thoroughly 
for a seed bed would require several years; therefore, it is likely that 
burning will be found the best method. It is interesting to note that 
the burning of these salt marsh soils causes part of the soluble matter 
to disappear, so that afterwards the amount of soluble matter is smaller 
than before burning. 
Samples No. 5376, No. 5377, and 5878 were collected from the inner 
marsh. The first two are the sod and decomposing sod, respectively, 
and the last is the underlying eel-grass clay. The plant food analysis 
shows this clay to be very similar to the Lloyds Harbor mud. The per- 
centage of soluble salts in the surface foot of the inner marsh is lower 
than that in any of the other samples. This shows that’a start toward 
sweetening has been made by the simple shutting out of the sea water. 
The drainage of this inner marsh is in progress and three samples of the 
drainage water collected while the ditch was in process of construction 
showed a salt content of 525, 860, and 860 parts salt per 100,000 parts 
of water. If this drainage keeps up the marsh will in a short time be 
much sweetened. The soil in this inner swamp is also very light and 
should be burned if the intention is to cultivate it. 
SUMMARY. 
Salt marsh lands have long been considered the most fertile and val- 
uable of lands. Practically no reclamation has been attempted in 
America, and that which has been attempted has in many cases been 
