76 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Maech, 
would offer is, that enterprising men (and our 
readers are all of this kind, of course), should 
be on the lookout early. This month they can 
cast about, discuss with their neighbors the 
utility and value of different implements and 
kinds of seeds, correspond with dealers and 
manufacturers, and examine their advertise- 
ments, catalogues, and circulars, which are usu- 
ally furnished free, for a stamp or two, and in 
this way get ready to order early. The last 
pages of this paper probably offer the most 
complete Directory to a class of good dealers 
that can be anywhere found. 
»-• ■«» ■ m 
Eeclaiming Bog land. 
A correspondent of the Agriculturist, writes 
over the signature of " Hermon," communicat- 
ing the following practical hints, and promis- 
ing more on the subsequent treatment of the 
reclaimed bog land. 
" Reclaiming swamp lands is of importance 
at all times, but especially so, when the price of 
hay is such, as to render the undertaking doubly 
remunerative, especially as the immigration of 
foreign laborers is greater now than usual, and 
they can be employed by the month, to perform 
the work, and also be at hand, when harvest 
or other business requires a full force of hands. 
I propose to give my experience during a few 
years past, that others may try what has been a 
benefit to me, and to caution them to avoid 
errors that I have fallen into. During the winter 
is the time to make arrangements, engage help, 
survey the swamp to find the full descent, de- 
termme the number and location of the principal 
ditches, and have tools and every thing in readi- 
ness, so that no time need be lost after the 
weather becomes fit to commence operations. 
The prime requisite is a main ditch of sufficient 
depth with a slight and uniform foil, to secure 
which, it is often necessary to begin the outlet 
ditch many rods from the lower part of the land 
to be drained. Hence the propriety of having 
a competent man to determine the actual descent 
in the land to be dug across, in order to find 
at what distance it will be requisite to com- 
mence, to obtain the desirable depth and fall. 
Cutting the main ditch is the first business to 
be done, that the swamp may become dry 
enough to admit of cutting and burning the 
bogs before the season is far advanced. Do not 
be afraid to dig the outlet deep enough and wide 
enough; better begin a little farther off than 
appears right, thereby securing an extra depth 
to compensate for the settling of the land, as it 
parts with its water and becomes more firm and 
solid. The ditch should not be less than four 
feet deep, and if the swamp is large, five would 
be better ; for the water should have greater fall 
in ditches, especially in blind ones, than the 
general surface of a swamp presents, so that 
when the drains are dug to their termini, they 
will be a little more than three feet deep, 
shallower than which, no blind ditch ought to 
be, if a greater depth can be obtained. None 
of the earth thrown out of the main ditch shoidd 
be left to press upon the banks, making them 
more liable to fall in, but should as soon as 
practicable be moved back with a team and 
scraper, spreading evenly as possible, for the 
earth and marl from the bottom frequently 
form a valuable amendment lo the surface soil. 
In scraping, try to improve the shape of the 
banks by rounding off the edges ; this removes 
a part soon acted upon by the frost and thrown 
into the ditch, adapts the surface better to the 
pcytlie, and gives it a finished appearance. 
All ditches to remain open should be dug 
with very slanting banks ; but those to be filled 
should be dug square down, which involves less 
labor. In some places tiles are used to form a 
passage for the water [and are generally to be 
recommended, ed.], but when small stones are 
abundant, it is customary to use them, thereby 
clearing them from the surface of neighboring 
fields. When stones are used, they should be 
put in so carefully, as not to break or jar down 
fragments of the banks. Always begin to fill in 
stones at the highest point, that is the upper end 
of the ditch, and never allow one larger than 
one's fist to be within a foot and a half of the 
bottom ; some use a sledge to break any that 
are too large, throwing in the pieces. Two feet 
is a suitable depth to fill with stone, and the 
best possible covering for them is the small bogs 
and wild sods of the swamp. These, stamped 
down, will keep the dirt in place and not be 
touched by the plow when breaking up ground. 
If help enough has been employed, the bogs 
should be all cut and burned, except those need- 
ed for ditches, and much of the ground plowed 
by the time the blind drains are completed, 
which should be in time to sow buckwheat, and 
before you need the hands in the hayfield." 
The White Willow. 
The season of the year approaches when 
willow cuttings are best set. The White Wil- 
low should not be indiscriminately recommend- 
ed for all soils, nor at all for hedges, properly so 
called. Its chief value, no doubt, is upon the 
moist, rich, naked prairies, where for shade, wind- 
breaks, and loood, its-rapid, clean growth will 
commend it ; sometimes, also, it will be found 
useful for these purposes where timber abounds. 
On low, moist grounds, common hedge pjlants 
usually fail, and ordinary fences are often liable 
to be washed away, while the willow will thrive 
and may be so set as to form, in a few years, a 
permanent, living tree fence, which will turn 
cattle, stop ice and drift wood, and make itself 
generally useful. The Yellow, or "Golden" 
Willow, will grow equally well, but it is less 
liardy, not so erect in its habit of growth, nor 
so useful for timber — that is, for fencing stuff, 
etc. The White is more highly esteemed also 
for basket making, though inferior to the Osier 
Willow in this respect. It is for. the ooen prai- 
rie country of the West that its good qualities 
are most apparent, and our views, in regard to 
the value of the White Willow, for live fence, 
soft timber, wind-breaks, etc., as expressed more 
than a j'ear ago, have only been confirmed as 
testimony has accumulated. There has been 
much disappointment, it is true, among those 
wlio have bought the cuttings and set them out 
for hedges or live fences. Too many small cut- 
tings have been planted, and not unfrequently 
frauds have been practised, and cuttings of 
other sorts furnished for the White Willow ; 
but the great cause of disappointment has been 
poor preparation of the ground before planting, 
with poor care afterwards. This, in connection 
with the dry springs and summers we have had, 
was enough to ruin the prospects of many plan- 
tations which might have done tolerably well if 
they had had to contend with either neglect or 
drouth singly. So far as we have been able to 
ascertain, no fence well planted and attended 
has tailed to answer reasonable expectations, if 
on soil adapted to the White Willow. 
Good strong cuttings, of a foot long, ought to 
be secured, and the ground should be plowed at 
least four feet wide, turning the furrows together. 
We would use a double plow, and put it down 
10 inches, — and it would be all the better to 
run a sub-soil plow 10 inches deeper through 
the center furrow. The cuttings being set as 
early as the ground can be worked, and cared 
for as well as a row of beans, the weeds being 
kept down, and the ground open and loose, we 
should expect very few to miss, and few not to 
make a good growth. Our recommendation for 
the willow is only for locations and uses to 
which it is especially adapted. For our views 
in regard to other trees, and the great import; 
auce of growing some kind of timber on the 
prairies, we refer to an article on page 86. 
•-• ■■» — ►— 
Side Hill or Horizontal Wells. 
The title is strange, and the idea doubtless a 
novel one to most of the readers of the Agri- 
culturist. It is well worthy their consideration. 
Mr. W. H. Gardner, of Muskegon Co., Mich., 
thus writes : " One would think from the in- 
variable rule of digging down for water, that it 
could be found in no other direction. In many 
localities it may as I'eadily be found by digging 
up, as down, and the labor of drawing water 
ever afterwards saved, as well as much of the 
labor of digging the well. We have seen many 
wells in the States of New York, Wisconsin, 
Michigan etc., which could have been started 
horizontally into the hill-side, and reached water 
within but little greater distance horizontally, 
than was dug down into the earth perpendicul- 
arily to find it. A horizontal well has the fol- 
lowing advantages : It can be dug at any time 
or season ; the earth can all be taken out in a 
barrow, however far horizontally the "level" 
is driven ; a great saving of labor and time ; by 
keeping a gentle ascent from the opening, the 
water will draw itself, running out as from a 
natural spring ; they are more easily stoned, less 
dangerous, and can be deepened at any time. 
The question which first suggests itself is : 
where can such a well be dug ? — We answer : 
anywhere, at the foot of a hill of forty or more 
feet in bight, or on the side of a hill. In sink- 
ing shafts in mining, or digging railroad tunnels, 
water is very readily and almost uniformly 
found, digging horizontally, and often in great 
abundance — the horizontal shaft cutting off more 
of the veins of water percolating through the 
earth, than a perpendicular one would." It is a 
matter of common experience where extensive 
draining operations are carried out, that living 
springs are cut so that water flows perpetually 
from the drain. When no such permanent 
sources of water are encountered, the flow from 
drains may be made to supply all the needs of 
a family and stock yard, except for a few months 
in the heat of summer. 
■ I »»» •-• 
What of the Ailanthus Silk-Worm ? 
A few years since much interest was excited 
in France, by the introduction of a new silk- 
worm (Saturnia Cynthia), obtained from China, 
which fed upon the Ailanthus, and produced a 
coarse but strong silk. The insect was figured 
and described in the American Agriculturist, Vol. 
XX., page 81. A few parties in this country 
experimented with the insect, and it was hoped 
that their efforts would be successful. Such, 
however, appears not to have been the case, a? 
will be seen by the following communication 
from Rev. Jno. Q. Jlorris, D.D., Librarian of 
Peabody Institute, Baltimore : 
Sear Sir: In answer to yours of the 19th, I 
would state that I now believe the cultivation of 
