NEW “ TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND MIND.” SERIES. 
Vol, V. ALBANY, MAY, 1848. No. 5 . 
TME FAM OF E. FfSIWWEY, 
(Continued from page 107.) 
Editors Cultivator —In my last communication, 
S proposed to continue my notes on Mr. Phinney’s 
farming, under the following heads: 
Draining and Reclaiming Swamps and Wet 
Lands. —There is an extensive peat-meadow on the 
farm, the greater part of which has been reclaimed by 
thorough draining and cultivation. Mr. Phinney says 
that the only way to make these meadows dry and pro¬ 
ductive in valuable grasses, is to ditch around the mar¬ 
gin so as to cut off the springs and receive the water 
which flows in continually from the surrounding up¬ 
lands. It is the water flowing in underneath, and not 
that falling on the surface, that renders the land cold, 
wet, and unproductive. In order to effect this, he has 
a very thorough ditch around the margin of the mea¬ 
dow, which is filled with stones to within a foot or so 
of the surface; they are then covered with refuse hay, 
straw or sods, and the whole levelled off with the soil, 
so that the plow may pass over in cultivation. His 
meadow is very wide, and therefore he has another 
ditch through the centre, connected with the marginal 
ones by cross-ditches, and through these the water 
filters among the stones, and is carried off perfectly. 
After this has been done, the wild grasses and other 
herbage are exterminated by thorough cultivation. If 
the meadow becomes dry enough during the season to 
plow, the turf is turned over as smoothly as possible 
and rolled down hard; in the winter a top-dressing of 
compost, made of loam and manure, half and half, 20 
to 30 loads per acre, is carried on, and in the spring it 
is planted to corn, or some other hoed crop, without 
disturbing the sod. If the plow does not turn the sods 
smoothly over, the bog-hoe follows making the uneven 
places level. When the crop is taken off in the fall, 
the surface is loosened and made level with the hoe 
and harrow, and late in the fall, or just before heavy 
frosts set in to freeze up the ground, the land is stocked 
down to grass with a bushel of red-top and half bushel 
of herd’s-grass seed per acre; the field is again rolled 
and the process completed, the seed coming up the 
next spring. If the land is intended for grass, without 
any previous cultivation, the turf is turned over with 
the plow at a favorable time during the summer; the 
hoe following makes all smooth, and late in the full a 
dressing of compost, as before stated, is put on, the 
grass-seed sown, and the bush and roller complete the 
operation. If the ground is too wet and miry to admit 
the team and plow upon it in the summer, Mr. Phinney 
would advise to plow in the spring, when the frost is 
about three or four inches deep, and then cart on the 
compost-dressing, and , at the proper time, plant or seed 
down as may be most desirable. 
Instead of this method of cultivation, the practice 
has been, and is now pursued by some, to cover the 
meadows two or three inches thick with sand or gravel* 
and then a top-dressing of compost; but Mr. PhinneyV 
experience is against this method of cultivation, from 
the fact that, after a year or two, the coarse, wild 
grasses are apt to work up through the covering, and 
entirely supplant the cultivated grasses. The whole 
must then have another covering or be abandoned a# 
worthless. The expense of this system is also much 
greater than that pursued by Mr. Phinney. 
Considerable difficulty arises in the cultivation of this 
kind of land, from its being too loose and open, or 
spongy; and hence it is considered of much importance 
to keep the inverted sod undisturbed in the cultivation£ 
as by this means a more firm and compact surface i#' 
formed, upon which the team may work without mir¬ 
ing; and, the dressing of compost also helping to fill¬ 
up the pores that may be open on top, affords greater 
facility for the fine roots of the cultivated grasses te 
expand more readily, and fully occupy and cover th« 
ground. In five or six years the wild grasses may be¬ 
gin to appear; in which case the land is again broken- 
up and managed as before. In this way heavy crops 
of corn and roots, and an immense burden of hay, may¬ 
be raised on these reclaimed meadows. 
There is another field on this farm, I should judge of 
eight to ten acres, of oblong shape, the sides dishing, 
towards the centre, and the whole moderately descend¬ 
ing lengthwise, which- he has now in hand for draining. 
It is naturally a wet, unproductive, swaley soil, rest¬ 
ing on an impervious hard-pan at about two feet be¬ 
low- the surface. A marginal ditch, three feet wide anff 
three deep, is made on each side of the field through 
its whole length, which cuts off the springs, and re¬ 
ceives the water flowing in from the uplands; another 
parallel with these runs through the centre of the field*, 
and the two former are connected with the latter by 
cross-ditches occurring every two or three rods, by 
which means the water is carried into the lowest or 
centre ditch, through which it passes off the field. 
These are all filled with stones tw-o feet deep, which 
are covered, first with shavings, refuse litter or sods t« 
keep the dirt out from the stones, and then with earth 
so as to make all smooth and level. The surplus water 
is thus carried off perfectlj’-, as may be ascertained by 
holding the ear near the surface, over the drains, when 
the water may be distinctly heard filtering through- 
among the stones. 
This piece of drainage must prove a profitable in* 
vestment; because the land, from its situation, receive# 
the surface-wash of many highly cultivated acres on 
each side, the whole value of which will now be re¬ 
tained—the land being drained with covered ditches— 
