226 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
THE WASTE PLACES OF THE FARM. 
DETAILS OF EXPERIMENTS. 
There are few farms, of any considerable 
dimensions, on which there are not found 
certain spots which, in their natural state, 
are almost wholly unproductive. Some¬ 
times these waste places are of such a char¬ 
acter that their recovery is well nigh hope¬ 
less, or at least the expense thereby incur¬ 
red would be so great as to forbid the at¬ 
tempt. In very many cases, however, by a 
little enterprize, and a trifling outlay of labor 
or capital, these neglected spots might not 
only be reclaimed so as to be serviceable, 
but they might even be transformed into the 
most profitable portions of the whole farm. 
More than all this, they may even furnish 
to the adjacent fields the elements of fertil¬ 
ity, and so defray the expense of their own 
improvement. All this is true with regard 
to many thousands of acres of land, covered 
at present with useless bogs which, at best, 
only furnish a little coarse pasture in the 
few early days of spring, but during the rest 
of the year only yield a fruitful harvest of 
noxious weeds, musketoes and slimy rep¬ 
tiles. 
The localities referred to are, generally, 
deposits of vegetable matter, combined with 
the richest and finest particles of the soil 
washed from the surrounding hills. But in 
consequence of excessive moisture, these 
lands, until reclaimed, are cold and sour, and 
unfavorable to vegetation except of the 
coarsest kinds. 
It is, first of all, necessary to free the soil 
from the water with which it is saturated, 
and to get rid of the rank growth of bogs or 
bushes whereby such localities are com¬ 
monly so thickly overgrown-. This, it must 
be confessed, is no easy matter; but re¬ 
quires considerable hard labor, or the use of 
some capital. The majority of farmers are 
frightened by these considerations, and so 
are deterred from seriously undertaking the 
much-needed improvement. Many, indeed, 
are wholly incredulous when assured that 
the elements of the highest fertility are treas¬ 
ured up in those places, which they have 
been accustomed to regard as hopelessly 
barren, so far as all useful vegetation is con¬ 
cerned. More correct notions with regard 
to this subject, however, are beginning to 
prevail, especially where agricultural papers 
are read, and where.farmers begin to be im¬ 
patient of the despotic rule of ancient usage, 
and on the contrary begin to realize the ne¬ 
cessity of progress in their high and honor¬ 
able vocation. 
One successful experiment has a happy 
influence over a whole neighborhood, by 
awakening attention and leading others to 
imitation. Recorded results of such under¬ 
takings exert a like influence. Hence it is 
that the writer is moved to note a few par¬ 
ticulars with regard to his own experience, 
hoping that, in consequence, some spot now 
desolate, and the source of mischievous ma¬ 
laria, may be made to smile with fertility, 
and to minister to the wants of man and of 
beast. 
It may be proper to premise that the wri¬ 
ter is not a farmer by profession, but is, at 
present, the occupant of a few acres over 
which he has control, and which are subject 
to his management. In one of the*lots on 
the premises there was a semi-circular piece 
of wet muck-swamp, overgrown thickly with 
formidable bogs, coarse weeds and bushes. 
The tract only contained an acre, or less ; 
but it seemed a pity to suffer it to remain in 
its then useless condition, while it was evi¬ 
dent that it might be profitably reclaimed. 
Accordingly, two years ago last fall, I em¬ 
ployed a man, and opened a ditch on the 
lower or straight side of the piece. A cov¬ 
ered drain (filled with small stones) was then 
made on the side next'to the up-land. The 
bogs were next cut off, gathered in heaps and 
burned, and the ashes scattered over the 
surface. Before the winter set in it was 
plowed—the operation being a difficult one, 
in consequence of the tough sod and the 
roots of the bogs remaining in the ground. 
These operations involved an expense of 
about $16. But, to balance the account, I 
had more than thirty loads of muck, of the 
best quality, from the open ditch, which was 
drawn up in the fall, and composted the fol¬ 
lowing spring with barn-yard manure. In 
the autumn this was applied to the adjacent 
lot, and the result was a good crop of rye 
from a rather poor, gravelly soil. 
I think that the increase of that single crop , 
considering the high price of grain last year, 
fully paid for the original outlay in the im¬ 
provements I had undertaken. 
In the spring of 1853 I undertook, myself, 
to cultivate a small corner—about the fourth 
part of an acre—of my reclaimed bog. The 
rest of the piece I assigned to a laboring 
man, on very liberal terms, on condition that 
he should thoroughly cultivate and subdue 
it. The season, however, in this region, 
was exceedingly wet, and from this cause, 
chiefly, he wholly neglected his portion af¬ 
ter it had been planted with potatoes. The 
ground was neither plowed nor hoed, and, 
as might have been expected, the crop was 
a failure, and my land was a perfect wilder¬ 
ness of rank weeds. But not so the small 
portion which was properly cared for. Not¬ 
withstanding the unfavorable character of 
the season, the products of that little corner, 
in potatoes, &c., were worth at least $12 
over and above the cost of cultivation. 
Nothing further was done with this piece 
of ground until about the first of July, last 
year, when I had it plowed. A peck and a 
half of buckwheat was sown upon the larg¬ 
est part of it, on the 6th^of July. On the 
22d of July I sowed the remainder with flat 
turnips and ruta-bagas. It proved to be too 
late for the latter. The flat turnips, howev¬ 
er, grew finely. Notwithstandingthe scorch¬ 
ing drouth, which spoiled crops in the adja¬ 
cent fields, in my muck ground vegetation 
advanced without any interruption. In pre¬ 
cisely 30 days from the time of sowing, I 
gathered radishes from this ground one and 
a half inches in diameter. In the neighbor¬ 
hood, generally, buckwheat and turnips were 
a failure ; but I harvested 11 bushels bf buck¬ 
wheat, and 60 bushels of turnips, notwith¬ 
standing the failure of my ruta-bagas. The 
account with this piece of ground last year 
stood as follows : 
• DEBIT. 
To plowing and harrowing one day.$2 00 
To It pecks of buckwheat, sown. 0 38 
To harvesting and threshing buckwheat . 1 25 
To harvesting turnips. 0 50 
Total.$4 13 
CREDIT. 
To 11 bushels buckwheat, at $1 p 1 bushel.$11 00 
To 00 bushels turnips, at 37t cents bushel . 22 50 
$33 50 
Deduct cost of cultivation. 4 13 
Leaving a clear profit of.$29 37 
from an acre which, before, was not only 
worthless, but a nuisance. 
Having concluded last fall that my ground 
was not yet sufficiently drained, I employed 
a man to dig several small additional ditches, 
and to fill them with stones from the adja¬ 
cent lot. This involved a new outlay of 
about $7. But to set over against this, at 
the same time, I had the main ditch widened 
and deepened, and so obtained 40 loads of 
muck for my compost heap. This will more 
than pay for the fresh expense incurred. 
I had the ground plowed again last fall, 
and this spring found it in fine condition. 
Preparatory to planting, some of the largest 
clods were gathered into heaps and partially 
burned, and then scattered. About two- 
thirds of the piece was then immediately 
marked out and planted with potatoes, broom 
corn, squashes, &c. This was done on the 
15th of May. The remainder, I have sown 
with carrots, beets, onions, &c. My seeds 
generally have come up very well, but just 
now this piece of ground is suffering in some 
degree from an excess of moisture, the 
rains having recently been very frequent and 
copious. 
I hope, with the ordinary blessing of Prov¬ 
idence, to receive a large return for the labor 
bestowed upon this bit of reclaimed ground, 
the present year. It is my purpose to ap¬ 
prise you of the result. 
I think it not unlikely that some of your 
readers will be disposed to regard this as a 
6mall matter, and unworthy of the space it 
occupies in your paper; but, what has been 
done on a small scale, may be done on a 
larger one ; and if it is profitable to reclaim 
a single acre, it will be profitable to under¬ 
take the reclamation of a larger number. 
A FRIEND OF IMPROVEMENT. 
Ulster County, N. Y. 
[We are pleased to get just such details. 
Our space can not be better occupied. They 
show what may be done, and how to do it. 
—IEo.] __________ 
A Philanthropic Potato Dealer. —The 
Terre Haute (Ind.) American relates an an¬ 
ecdote of a canal boat captain who brought 
a load of patatoes to market at that place, 
which is well worth repeating : 
He sold his potatoes at one dollar and 
twenty-five cents per bushel, when the price 
in the town had been all along two dollars 
and twenty-five cents. As soon as the spec¬ 
ulators heard of his low price, one of them 
broke for the boat to buy the load. He of¬ 
fered to take the whole cargo at the captain’s 
price, but that impracticable individual re¬ 
fused to sell, and thus lectured the specula¬ 
tor on the sin of “ forestalling ” the market: 
“ Sir, I will not sell the potatoes to any 
