Vol. LV. No. 2408. 
NEW YORK, MARCH 21, 1896. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
HOW THEY CIVILIZED THE MARSH. 
A WINDMILL DRIES UP A SWAMP. 
Drainage Below the Water Level. 
Irrigation seeks to restore the balance of moisture. 
The droughts of the past few seasons have made us 
all think about hunting for a fresh water supply. In 
most cases, it is needed to promote the circulation of 
water—here is a case where it was necessary to 
demote it. On many farms, there are swamps and 
b 0 g S —low and wet land that is sour and unproductive 
though chemically it is the richest part of the farm. 
There are two ways of making such places useful. 
One is to haul the muck out to the higher and drier 
soil—the other is to drain the moisture out of the 
swamp, sweeten the muck, and plant directly on it. 
In one case, you carry the swamp to the crops, and in 
the other you carry the crops to the swamp—and that 
is by far the most satisfactory way in the end. 
On the farm of the Wisconsin Agricultural College, 
is a marsh of 30 acres—low, wet land through which 
runs a creek. A por¬ 
tion of this marsh is 
so low that it over¬ 
flows from a nearby 
lake in times of high 
water. On the south 
side of the creek, are 
10 acres that might 
be drained if the 
water of the stream 
could be kept back 
from it. In the fall 
of 1894, it was deter¬ 
mined to try to drain 
this field by diking 
back the creek water 
and pumping out the 
drainage water. 
Through the wet 
bog, a roadway was 
built by first laying 
down brush and old 
boards, and on top of 
them the green marsh 
grass and cat-tails 
from about two acres. 
This proved substan¬ 
tial enough to hold a 
team and loaded 
wagon. Close by this 
road a ditch was 
made by cutting 
down with a hay 
knife and lifting the 
bog out with a manure hook. As this ditch was made, 
earth and sand from the higher ground were dumped 
into it. This earth settled down into the thin mud 
that filled the ditch, to a depth of several feet, or far 
enough to make a firm footing. It then gradually 
filled up till it formed a substantial dike, 18 inches 
above water level, and four feet wide on top. The 
purpose of this dike was to keep back the creek water 
in time of overflow, and also to prevent water from 
soaking into the drained land. 
When this dike was done, a ditch was dug about 10 
feet from it on the inside. Into this ditch run paral¬ 
lel lines of tile laid 33 feet apart. The other side of 
the field is drained by a main six-inch tile with lateral 
tile drains running into it. The open ditch and the 
six-inch tile both empty into the reservoir shown in 
the picture. This pool or sump is 40 by 00 feet in 
area, and four feet deep—dug just inside the dike. 
Close by this sump is a well four feet deep, bricked 
up and connected with the sump by six-inch sewer 
pipe. Over this is placed a 14-foot windmill on a 40- 
foot tower, which works a pump placed low down in 
the well. The ditch and the tile drain the field, and 
pour the water into the sump. From that it passes 
into the well and is pumped out over the dike into the 
creek. In digging the ditches, a number of springs 
were tapped so that there is a constant flow of water 
into the sump and, therefore, constant work for the 
windmill. By means of this arrangement, the land 
is well drained, though there is no natural outlet for 
the water. 
Fig. 62 shows the whole arrangement. The pump 
in the foreground was placed so that it might be con¬ 
nected with a steam engine if found necessary ; but 
last year the windmill alone easily handled all the 
water. The springs run freely so that considerable 
water was discharged in winter. To prevent freezing 
in the sump. 4% foot posts were set up in it to carry 
2 by 4 stringers. Cheap boards laid over them made 
a roof on which was placed marsh hay. The open 
ditch was protected in the same way, while several 
loads of horse manure were placed around the pump. 
Thus protected, the water flowed freely all winter, 
and the pump lifted it as fast as it accumulated. The 
windmill is never shut off except when it is being 
oiled and, therefore, stands ready to pump whenever 
the wind is blowing. 
This draining was done in the fall. After draining, 
all that the horses could work on was plowed. Last 
spring this was worked over with a disc harrow, 
and flint corn was planted on June 3. It was not 
expected that this would come to much; yet, 
though the season was unusually dry, they har¬ 
vested one of the largest crops of fodder ever grown 
on the farm. 
Thus, by this simple and ingenious device, worth¬ 
less land has been turned to account. Prof. Henry 
says that there are many such cases in Wisconsin 
where this method of reclaiming land may be adopted, 
and we have no doubt that some of our readers are in 
a situation to put this method in practice. For the 
facts regarding this interesting experiment, as well 
as for the illustration, we are indebted to Prof. W. 
A. Henry who has described the work in the report 
of the Wisconsin Experiment Station. 
“LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON”! 
NEW FORM OF AN OLD QUESTION. 
A Father Who is Making a Home Anarchist. 
I have obtained and read several copies of The R. 
N.-Y., and notice that it has a great deal to say about 
“ improved farming.” So I write to ask what you or 
your readers would do if they were in my place. I 
am a young man, living with my father on a “ rented ” 
farm. A few years ago, I became interested in “ good” 
live stock, by reading some papers that came into my 
hands, and visiting our county fair. Determining to 
have some, I secured the position of janitor in the 
school which I attended. I invested the money 
earned in thoroughbred poultry and Berkshire swine. 
I have built houses for them, and paid for their feed, 
all from their increase since. I showed some of the 
poultry at the fair and a few shows where I won 
several premiums. So much for that side of the case, 
but the other is not so bright. 
My father does not believe in improved stock, and 
looks upon “book 
farming ”, as he calls 
it, as the greatest 
evil of the Nine¬ 
teenth Century. He 
planted his corn last 
spring, with a grain 
drill, in rows, he said 
to save cultivating 
one way. A part of 
that corn is out in 
the field now (in 
March); it is husked 
only as fast as it is 
needed for feeding. 
As long as I can re¬ 
member, I never 
knew him to have all 
his corn husked be¬ 
fore it thawed up in 
the spring. 
H e purchased a 
new binder three 
years ago, on the in¬ 
stalment plan, pay¬ 
ing $15 down ; after 
harvest, it was run 
into a shed and left 
with the aprons on it 
just as it came from 
the field. The hens 
roosted in the shed 
during the fall and 
winter, and the next 
summer, when it was run out to take to the harvest 
Held, I remember that several basketfuls of droppings 
were shoveled off of the machine before it could be 
used, and father went around with a kettle of hot 
water and scalded the different parts to kill the “ hen 
lice ” on it. 
As 1 sit here writing this, I can see a hay-rake stand¬ 
ing down near the road in a snow bank, at least four 
feet deep, and just beyond is a sulky-plow standing 
in the same drift, just where they were unhitched 
from last season, and as I went up into the woods to 
help saw wood the other day (we never have more 
than a load at the house at a time), I saw a harrow 
frozen fast in the ground where it was left last fall 
after “ dragging in” some rye. Now the reason these 
things hurt me so, is that a number of people come 
here to see my poultry and hogs, and they see these 
things themselves, and also father’s scrub chickens 
running around, and I have heard several say that 
they guessed that any one who was surrounded with 
things in this kind of a way, could not keep very 
good stock ; so they never call again. Father drives 
HOW A WISCONSIN MARSH, BELOW WATER LEVEL, WAS DRAINED. Fig. 62. 
