THE CULTIVATOR. 
303 
SALT MARSHES. 
The expediency of reclaiming salt marshes, seems to 
have been heretofore looked on by some as questionable, 
from the fact that many marshes which have formerly 
been diked, have proved unproductive after the lapse of 
a longer or shorter time, and have consequently been 
suffered to relapse into their former condition, or be 
flooded again by the tides of the ocean. This, we are 
informed, has been the case in several instances in Mass. 
But the results do not seem to have been uniform, for 
though in some cases the anticipated profits have not 
been realized, yet in others, success has been quite satis¬ 
factory. The productiveness of these reclaimed marshes 
seems to be regulated in a great degree by local circum¬ 
stances—as the nature of the soil, the perfection of the 
work of reclamation, &c. The expediency of diking, 
was considerably discussed in the New-England Farmer 
some twenty years since. Hon. John Welles wrote se¬ 
veral articles to show that the advantages to be derived 
from diking, were so uncertain, that the operation was 
in general inexpedient. Among other reasons for his 
views, Mr. Welles held that a an acre of salt marsh is 
worth as much as an acre of any grass land whatever. 55 
Mr. W. says further in regard to this land, “ that it re¬ 
quires little or no fencing—it takes no manure from the 
farmer’s yard, but is recruited for the product it yields, 
wholly from the sea; and it requires few or none of those 
natural or incidental labors which are common to all up¬ 
land. The product of the marsh is of great advantage to 
cattle, especially in the interior, as a change of food,and 
as a gradual and natural supply, in the best state, of sa¬ 
line matter. This is apparent in their thrift, and it has 
long been known to our farmers, that the value of the 
manure has been much increased where this fodder has 
been used. 35 
In opposition to the views of Mr. Welles, that the di¬ 
king of marshes is injudicious, a correspondent of the 
New-England Farmer (for March 2, 1827,) cites an ex¬ 
ample of reclaimed marshes in the Little Harbor of Co- 
hasset. As early as 1789, the marshes of this place were 
diked by a company incorporated for the purpose. From 
some accident, the dike fell into decay. “ In 1792, 53 
(says the account,) c ‘ the proprietors rebuilt the dam, and 
succeeded in converting the meadows into English grass, 
which from that time to the present, has yielded a more 
certain crop than almost any other land. None of the 
meadows extend further than thirty rods from the upland, 
and abound with fresh water springs. 55 
In the American Farmer’s Encyclypedia we find the 
following directions for reclaiming marshes, said to have 
been derived from Mr. T. F. Lambson, of Salem, New 
Jersey: 
1st. The marsh should be secured from the tide by a 
permanent bank. 2d. A sluice or sluices of sufficient ca¬ 
pacity must be laid to discharge the rain water and back 
water which proceed from adjacent uplands, so that at no 
time the water-courses and ditches will be filled to over¬ 
flowing. The sluices should be laid deep enough to 
draw the water through them from the lowest part of the 
marsh; great care should be taken to have the doors 
made tight, so as to exclude all the tide water possible. 
The water-courses and drains should intersect each other 
at right angles, and no lot of marsh should contain more 
than ten acres. If any rain water should remain upon the 
middle of these lots, it will be necessary to cut small 
drains to let it pass off freely; these might be covered, 
where the materials are at hand. The mud and earth 
which come out of the water-courses and ditches, should 
be removed into the lowest part of the marsh; by a neg¬ 
lect of this, the rain water will be confined too long 
upon the surface, and the most luxuriant growth of tim¬ 
othy or clover may in a short time be converted into a 
nursery of rushes. 
The best time to sow do wn with grass, is when the tide 
is first shut off, and when the mud is soft; a growth of 
coarse grass will spring up sufficient to protect the young 
grass in its tender state; this crop should be mown off, 
and not suffered to lodge upon the marsh. Timothy and 
herds grass require about one bushel to sow four acres. 
The former will flourish where the water can be kept 
21 or 3 feet below the surface; where it approaches 
nearer than this in the ditches, the latter will succeed 
best. In order to avoid having it sown in rows, it should 
be sown a second time across the first sowing. It is not 
advisable to mow longer than three years in succession; 
to mow and pasture alternately is the better plan. If the 
high marsh becomes bound and unproductive, plowing 
will be necessary; and after raising two or three crops 
of rye, Indian corn or broom corn, without the applica¬ 
tion of any manure, the soil will be quite renovated, and 
when sown down in grass will be much more product¬ 
ive. When the earthy deposit is several feet in depth, 
it will not soon be exhausted; when it is not desirable 
to plow, lime may be used with success. Low marsh or 
turf, or as we term it here, “ horse-dung 55 mud, should 
not be plowed; when it becomes unproductive, a cover¬ 
ing of clay or loam to the depth of two or three inches, 
will be found the cheapest application. 
ROT IN FRUIT. 
All those who are in the habit of putting up fruit foi 
use or for sale, are sensible that a large portion of it is 
lost by rot or decay. There are two causes of this; one 
the natural decay of the fruit, and the other a fungi or 
parasite, which, when once it fixes its roots in the fruit, 
spreads with destructive rapidity. 
The result of the first is seen, when it is attempted to 
keep fruit beyond the time fixed by nature for its decay. 
Thus apples that are ripe in August, will rarely keep 
sound till January; decay usually beginning at the cen¬ 
ter, and progressing until the whole is destroyed. So 
with plums, peaches, grapes, &c. The second kind of 
decay, or that which arises from fungus, usually com¬ 
mences at some point on the exterior part, and pene¬ 
trates into the inside, as well as spreads over the surface. 
The bitter rot, so destructive in some cellars, and to some 
particular kinds of the apple, is an example of this para¬ 
sitic destroyer. 
Mr. Hassall of London has lately been engaged in a se¬ 
ries of microscopical experiments on these fungi, deter¬ 
mining their characters, and the manner in which they 
are propagated. He produced apples inoculated with 
the sporules of the fungi only three days previous, in 
which the rot had already extended to the size of half a 
crown; and the fruit was unfit for the table. It appears 
from the experiments of Mr. H. that the seed-like bodies 
of these fungi are too minute for the eye to detect, even 
I in masses of considerable size, and they are always float¬ 
ing in the air around the place where such plants are able 
to fructify; wherever they meet with a portion of the 
skin of a fruit, a little torn or abraded, there they can es¬ 
tablish themselves; and when the surface of a fruit is in 
no way injured, they are able, but with less rapidity, to 
introduce their microscopical spawn through the pores 
of the skin. 
It is not improbable that the disagreeable odors so 
common in fruit cellars where decaying fruit is present, 
is in a great degree owing to these microscopic sporules 
that fill the air of such places; and the propriety of tho¬ 
rough ventilation would suggest itself as the means of 
checking the progress or spread of the fungi. It may 
seem incredible at first, that such minute substances 
should operate so quickly on living vegetable matter; but 
the instances mentioned by Liebig of the action of putrid 
animal matter applied to the living tissue, would seem to 
place this rapid action of vegetable poison on fruit in a 
clear light. We observed not long since an account of a 
fruit grower in Herefordshire in England, who preserved 
his fruit in a perfect condition, even when piled in large 
masses, by dashing over them once a week a suffici ent 
quantity of pure water to wet the whole thoroughly, the 
apples being so placed on hurdles in the cellar, that the 
water could drain off readily. It is evident such an ap ¬ 
plication of water would displace any sporules or fungi, 
unless they had taken very firm root, and it is probable 
the water would have the effect of imparting a vigor to 
the fruit, that would enable ii to resist for a longer tins© 
the attacks of this insidious and destructive enemy. 
Save all your straw for winter feed and litter. 
