Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1855-04-13
Tom the N,v Ensbnd Farmer.
Reclaiming Swamp Lands.


Thi. .uhyc, l. hccining 10 arrrstt the attn'
ton Of the New England cultivators. Ne
sulS,ct connected with farming can morc
properly occupy the thought. of the farmer,
who has such land .,ill unrcclaimcd, upon
hi. farm. The fr,qucn, drnurht' to which
We arr subjected, arc teaching " to - a
higher value upon such lands, tilan We have
hitherto done. Experience j. showing us
that thcy arr he mo-t productive aud The
mot reliable lands which We cultivate, II
was formerly SUPPOSED that potatoes grow
uron such lands were more liable To disea~r
than thosr grown upon upland' But |
think The experience of the lhst two YEAR,
ha, shown that potatoc- grow upon pat
laud-. are a. little liable to rot, a. thu-c
grown upon any kind of-oil whatrycr, while
,he Weld was much larger than upon an!
other .oil.
One Of my ncighlyr', the past -asun,
r,,lirrl a clear profit of ninety dollar an
acrc for pat swamp cultivated in potatoes
which thr,y YEAR ago would not have sold
frr twenty dollar. rer acre. Now the land
!. worth a hundryd dollar. rcr scrr. one
urthc dncs, J.ricc. of reclaimed land which
have s..u +. situated near ths ~s-'.- -
Carlisle. on the rad fum Concorl 10 Low
10. think il contain. not le,- shan twenty
arry.. \ few years a-'. Il vNs An unsirht.
~ swamp, fllcd with stumps has-ocks and
bushc.. The water .toul upUn a large por-
tion It il. mot of the ycar. II was the
hyorite r-1rt or bull.frOgs and tnrioi.-..
The Muh'rri,, wcrc the only Troluc, of any
value that it yi,llcd Tbs only pleasant,
memory associated with It j. the s,ug Of the
blackhirds that .poricd and whisilci around
il. margin in the .priug time. by 'killfl
ani indchiigahlc labor, IL has ls'n convert.
cd into one of the mo., level and b"aatiful
mcndpw. to H. found in Massachusetts, IL
alvay. uycts my attention when Tass hy
Il. and don't cease 70 lpok att, while any
portion of it i. in sight Immense quanii-
tie- uf ropts have hs-n extracted from IL,
which have been u,,-l fpr fuel It, surface
ha. lcen .muothcl hy the bog hoe and the
plow. II ha. bc,.n dressed with compost
of harm manure. and gravel miNcd together
upon it, margin. Small portions or i, hay"
l.yn reclaimed annually ia this way, prin-
cipally hy the labor Of the owners, until il
has now been converted from an offensive
blotch upon the bosom Of mother earth, in
To a spot Of b.auty, that delights the eye Of
every beholdcr. have bern informed that
a portion Of it cultivated the two past years
in potatoes yielded clear profit Of SlOOPcr
acrc. Most of it j. m grass, and yields from
two to thrcc tons pcr acre oftinc hay. This
land, few wears ago, was not worth $40
pr acre, now is worth 5000. The secret
by which SlOO has thus bccn converted into
$1,000, is through draining. The fuel which
the owners have taken from thi. swamp, and
the potatoes which they have grown upon
i,s surface, have paid them for their labor
from war To year, and, now they have a
valuable estate which will continue 10 yield
them large crops, with but little cIp5nse IN
it, cultivation. How could they have made
a more profitable investment than this? But
they did not invest money. They have ere
atcd this property by their own labors, and
the proper question is, in what way could
they have employed their labors more profit
ably The eiLoct produced upon such lands
by draining is truly astonishing. There are
sccyral reasons by which the beneficial effects
Of draining may be accounted for. But We
shall speak of only one Of these reasons at
present.
Draining eleyates the temperature Of the
soil many degrees. and thereby iitsit tn yield
vigorous growth to plants, which before
refused altogether to grow upon It, When
a soil is saturated with water, the most in
tense heat Of the sun can raise its tempera-
turc but very little. lfyou place kettle
fllcd with water over the fire, the tempera-
ture Of the water will rise rapidly until it
reaches 2l2 degrees. The water then begins
10 BE- converted into steam. You may con-
tinue to add fuel, and apply the bellows, but
the water grows no hotter. All the calOric
added is rendered latent in the change Of
form which the water undergoes. In other
words, the calorie is carried oh by the steam
as fas, as il is impaired to the water. Steam
is water combined into a certain amount Of
caloric. Abstract this caloric. from steam
and it becomes water again. SO the heat