Daily national Democrat., 1859-04-17
Drainage of Swamp Lands.


The subject of Swamp Land being now be-
fore the Legislature of this State we make
says the California Farmer, the following val
liable extracts from the excellent Address OF
John Jay, ESQ delivered before the An eri-
can Geographical and Statistical Society,
New York. recently:
In almost all the States extensive tracts of
swamp lands nre found, not only unfit for
cultivation, but frequently indueve of that
fearful scourge of health and happiness. fever
and ague, that year after year prostrates the
energies. and shortens the lives of tens of
thousands of our countrymen.
Large grants of these swamp lands have
been gratuitously made by the Federal Gov
ernment to the States, in the hope of their
reclamation through measures to be adopted |
ny the State Governments. Since SAG near
~ sixty millions Of acres have been thus
granted In the drainage of large tracts of
land we have the benefit Of the eyneri.nce nf
Europe, especially of Holland, where th,.
Harlem Lake, thrifty three miles in circ,n,-
ference, and thirteen feet below the tide h,s
since 1889. been converted into "A most Ter
tile Tract, occupied by some two thousand in.
habitants and exhibiting fields of yerdu- 9
dotted with numerous cottages and en,iven-
ed 10y cattle horses and sheep. grazing On h,
fruitful meadows The lands tn is reel .imed
from the ocean nre Of extraordinary fertility
and are estimated rs capable Of suppurtiua
Seventy thousand persons.
Ofthe peclniiry results of drainage in thi,
countr Gov Wright of Inlitna quoted an
example in puhlic address touching th,
M IrShy lands of that state embracing thre.
thous md acres lie mentioned farm of l6,
ncr's which had been sold Mt five hundred
dollars and. after nm expenditure If two hun
dred dollars in drainage, was worth upward,
of three thO1sInl dollars. or an advance OF
more than live hundred per cent.
But, apart fron these large tracts Of over
flowed lands, scarcely firm in the country
but would lie improved hv thorough drain
age, and it would not be difficult to ascertain
the numltr of acres underdrained in cncb
year ct the census, nor the estimated ad,Ii
tlon' value which they thereby received -
The committee on drainage. in their r..nor,
10 the State Agricultural Society. of New
York. IN lS4s assert, that there Is nor o,e
farm out of every seventy five In this S,ota
but needs sdraiuing-much draining-tol,ri,,o
it into high cultivation. May we ventnrs e
say that every wheat field would produce n
larger and rnrr crop ifproperly drained"
Looking at the acreage now devoted to In.
dian corn, to say nothing of oar other crops.
1t has Geen estimated that by the adoption of
an inp~ovud system Of Agriculture. embrace
ing drainage, deep blowing and skillhl ma
nuring. the entire crop now yielding 400 mil
lions uf dollars, might, upon the same breadth
Of land. be trehled if not quadrupled AT
present. with occasional exceptions. our erops
per acre are even less in our most fertile and
almost virgin States than in the soil of En-
rope. that has been cultivated for centuries
Take wheat. for instance. The average
crop per acre in New York. Ohio and Indi
ana. is l2 bushels in France it is l3; in Eng.
land 2l III Flanders 23 in Scotland 80 ION
the authority Of Prof Johnson); and in New
Brunswick. 10.
How the average might be increased
throughout this country by careful culture
we may. in part learn from the return, of
occasional crops in England Of seventy Lusb-
els. in New York Of sixty, on the prSiries of
forty fur. and at San Jose in California ma !.
reported Of eighty seven. "
+See an interesting paper on drainage. bv II F
French, OF Exeter, N. H., in the Patent Oaioe Rs.
pogss for 1856, page 100.