378 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
now selling from $2,000 to $2,500 per acre. 
Dwellings have been built upon them, a large 
portion of them is under cultivation, producing 
heavy crops of corn, potatoes, tobacco, garden 
6tufF, hay, etc. Besides the smaller sales and 
leases, they have sold G6 acres of the interior 
lands not above the average in value for $2,000 
per acre, or $132,000; and the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company have erected large brick 
buildings upon these lands for machine shops, 
engine houses, and other purposes. Another 
sale was made upon the Hackensack River of 
20 acres for $5,000 per acre, or $100,000; and 
negotiations are now in progress for the sale of 
200 acres to the Pullman Car Company for 
$500,000,' or $2,500 per acre. These sales show 
the entire feasibility of reclaiming these lands, 
and their great value when freed from water. 
Almost all our large seaport towns have large 
tracts of these marsh lands that are worthless 
or only yield crops of salt hay. I hey do not 
now pay the interest on twenty dollars an acre 
in any product for human use. If reclaimed, 
they would become much more productive in 
garden stuff and the upland grasses than the 
average dry land that needs no drainage. In 
the vicinity of Boston it is estimated that there 
are 10,000 acres of these salt marshes that 
might be reclaimed and brought under cultiva¬ 
tion. In the vicinity of New Haven there are 
still larger tracts that could be economically 
reclaimed. Almost every town along the Con¬ 
necticut coast between Saybrook and Green¬ 
wich has its large border of salt marshes, pre¬ 
senting a most inviting field for the capitalist. 
New Jersey has still larger tracts that can be 
bought cheap enough to make very large profits 
in reclaiming them, even if they were never to 
he touched by the plow and only used for 
the production of grass. For this crop they 
only need surface drainage, and the sowing of 
grass seed alter the sea-water is shut out. We 
have seen enormous crops of timothy and red- 
top taken from such lands for years in succes¬ 
sion, making quite as good fodder as the same 
grasses grown upon dry soil. These crops do 
well for several-years without any top-dressing. 
It can not be expected that they will bear crops 
forever which are removed without some dimi¬ 
nution of products. But, with much less out¬ 
lay than is needed upon the adjacent uplands, 
they will yield remunerative crops, and pay the 
interest on two to three hundred dollars per 
acre. We know of salt marsh lands reclaimed 
seventeen years ago that are still fat and flour¬ 
ishing. They have never been plowed, but are 
kept, up by pasturing in alternate years and by 
top-dressings of manure. A farmer who owns 
salt marsh can not afford to let it lie waste. 
Method of Preserving Green Fodder. 
A method of preserving green fodder, such 
as turn ip-tops, beet-tops, or other succulent 
vegetables, has been in use for many years in 
Europe, by which this green fodder is kept in 
good condition for six or twelve months. A 
trench two to four feet deep is dug in a dry spot 
in the field, and the tops of the roots, carefully 
gathered when free from rain or dew, are thrown 
into it. They are very compactly pressed down, 
ar.d when the pit is filled some straw is laid 
noon the fodder and the earth is heaped over 
the whole. In this manner this product, which 
is generally wasted in a great measure, is util¬ 
ized. On one occasion the writer saw one of 
these pits opened in the spring which had been 
filled and covered up the fall previous. The 
fodder, which was leaves of sugar-beets, was as 
fresh to all appearance as when gathered, and 
the cows to which it was fed ate it with avidity. 
Salt is generally sprinkled upon the fodder and 
aids in its preservation. It would be worth 
while when our root crops are being gathered 
to preserve the tops in this way as an experi¬ 
ment. It is not probable that there will be any 
difficulty on account of our colder climate in 
thus preserving for future use a very consider¬ 
able amount of winter fodder. The principal 
requisites are to pack away the leaves when 
dry, to compress them as closely as possible, 
and to cover them so completely with earth 
that all access of air is prevented. It is by the 
exclusion of air that they are kept from decay. 
■ - «-* - -*-•- 
Kerosene Oil for Hen Lice. —Hen lice are 
among the greatest drawbacks to the pleasure 
and profit of the poultry yard; they are espe¬ 
cially troublesome in small yards and coops 
where the fowls cannot have free access to 
green food and dry earth. We have tried 
various remedies, and have found kerosene oil 
to be a very effectual and safe one. It is ap¬ 
plied with very little trouble; pour it from the 
can upon the perches where the fowls roost, 
and when the hens are ready to brood, saturate 
the inside of the box before the clean hay or 
straw is put in with the eggs. It is very much 
less trouble to apply the oil than to use a wash 
of tobacco, or to go through a process of white¬ 
washing once a month. 
---»*———■« —-- —- 
Top-Dressing Wheat. 
Wheat that has been sown on unmanured 
ground is often top-dressed during the winter. 
Sometimes the manure is spread at an earlier 
period, but it is generally for want of the ma¬ 
nure that the work is delayed, and it is neces¬ 
sary to wait for it to be made. Where this un¬ 
fortunate condition does not exist it is very un¬ 
wise to delay the top-dressing until the frost 
has taken possession of the soil. The very 
earliest possible moment should be seized for 
this work. Until the ground is permanently 
frozen growth is constant. Everything that 
can forward that growth is needed. The safety 
of the plant depends on its vigor and health at 
the outset of winter. If weak it is easily thrown 
out by a slight frost and destroyed, for it has 
no roots whereby to maintain a hold upon the 
ground except at the very surface; “and be¬ 
cause it has no depth of earth it withers away.” 
If the manure is spread upon the young plant 
just started into growth early in October it may 
be saved. The few weeks during which it may 
establish itself in the soil will practically be 
doubled in length by a quickened condition of 
existence. The extra covering too will act as 
a protection against light frosts, and the period 
of suspension of growth will be deferred some¬ 
what. The soil will also have absorbed the 
soluble part of the manure carried into it by the 
fall rains and become permanently improved 
thereby. This store will be drawn upon in 
spring by the growing crop, and will be wholly 
utilized, and nothing will be lost. On the other 
hand, the manure spread upon frozen ground is 
of no use to the plant at that time, for its life is 
in such an inactive state that it can not receive 
nourishment. There is no growth to assimilate 
it, even could the soil absorb it. But. this it can 
not do. Frozen solidly, everything valuable that 
is washed out of the manure passes away over 
the surface and is lost. When the early spring 
thaws come the surface is washed bare and 
nothing remains upon the soil. The manure is 
no protection even, for the plants are already 
frozen up, and the myriad of sere and yellow 
blades show that the crop is already past help. 
Its help comes too late. We have tried this 
plan more than once and would never repeat 
the experience. Rather than do so again we 
would refrain from sowing any fall crop, and 
either take a spring crop or fallow the ground. 
The loss will be less. If it is possible to top- 
dress the wheat crop early in October we would 
not hesitate if hurried to leave the manuring 
until then. But we would never top-dress in 
winter again nor when the ground is frozen. 
The Decline of Grain-Farming in the 
East. 
A single firm in the Mystic Valley, Conn., 
imported and sold 30,000 bushels of corn in the 
year 1872, and this probably was not half the 
Western corn consumed in a population of 10,- 
000, of which nearly one-half are farmers. This 
corn went to the supply of families in the vil¬ 
lages, livery-stables, cart-horses, and a good 
deal of it to the horses and cattle upon farms as 
a substitute for hay, there being but a little dif¬ 
ference between the price of hay and corn per 
pound. This fact indicates the great change 
that has come over the large part of Massachu 
setts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island in the last 
thirty years. They do not raise their own 
breadstuff’s or provender. Wheat ceased to be 
a remunerative crop long ago, and the sight of 
a wheat-field is exceedingly rare. Even rye is 
so scarce that the straw sells from $20 to 
$25 per ton, and is worth more per acre than 
the grain in ordinary crops. Oats are raised 
but in diminished quantities, and, as a rule, are 
consumed upon the farms. Almost eveiywhere 
in the section indicated, the manufacturing in¬ 
terest thrives. Smart towns have sprung up in 
the valleys of all the streams, and there is com¬ 
paratively little water power that is not util¬ 
ized. The streams are all dammed, and enor¬ 
mous reservoirs are built near their sources, or 
natural ponds are raised to supply water in the 
summer drouths. Factories built in the most 
substantial manner of stone and brick have 
been put up near these dams, and a large pop¬ 
ulation has gathered around them. The capi¬ 
tal and skill of the people to a large extent 
have been invested in these villages, and almost 
everything that meets human wants and can 
be sold, from a penny toy to a steamer costing 
a half million dollars or more, is made here. 
Every year sees a large increase in the variety 
and quantity of these manufactures. New ma¬ 
chines are patented, and forthwith a new fac¬ 
tory springs up to meet the new demand. It 
would take a large volume to give the names 
of these manufactured goods. Many of them 
are monopolies for a time, and the profits are 
large. The companies that own the patents 
can afford to give a higher price for capital and 
labor than- farmers, and, of course, they secure 
both; more than this, they secure the farmers 
themselves, or their sons, because they get bet¬ 
ter pav than they could in working the soil. 
The old homestead is frequently sold to the 
next neighbor at a sacrifice, because the farm¬ 
ing interest is depressed and the demand for 
farmers is small. Many farms are sold every 
year at prices that would not much more than 
pay for the original cost of the buildings. When 
men think they can make more money in man- 
