Litchfield enquirer., 1872-01-25
lContributed.]
RecIaiming a Swamp.

OH my tarIn l nave swamp or e1ght acres, which was without doubt a pond the outlet of which was once filled with small sticks placed there by the beaver, the prints of whose teeth are yet visible on the rotten wood. ,...., er. Az
 This swamp rests on 8 bed of pure blue clay, varying in depth from two to ten or more feet, and is composed almost entire ly of pure swamp muck. Some twenty years ago, with a view of making it into a meadow, I ran ditch around the outside and through the middle, four feet wide and three feet and q half deep. I then cut and burned the bogs, spread the ashes and seeded it to herdgrass, clover and red-top, and applied at the same time a liberal top-dressing of we'll routed manure. At the second moving from this time it was as beautiful meadow of grass as I have ever seen in all my life. I cut sin gle rod of grass and weighed it by itself and 1t made an average of four tons of we'll cured hay to the acre. When I had reclaimed one half of this swamp, I en- tered it for the premium of our State Az ricultural Society, which sent their com mittee to examine and report.
 This committee gave it as their opinion, that the yetunreclaimed half of this swamp was worth as it there lay hundred dol lars an acre, and gave me the first premi- um of the State Society. It is quite sure I think that felt little vain over the success of the enterprise, as it added eleven large loads of hay and, as then suppos- ed, of the very best quality; but imag- inc my surprise when upon placing it be- fore my cattle it vanished like chaff be- fore the wind, leaving scarcely substance enough in my cattle to cast shadow. I found that I was badly swamped.
 Looking at this piece of reclaimed land from the top of hill, three-fourths of & mile off, it was the most beautiful sight to be hold in contrast with it's surround ings of rocks, hard-hacks and bogs. While the seed sown upon the swamp con- tinued to produce a fair crop of hay, I continued to mow and gather in the crop, but in few years the manure had spent it's strength and the swamp and bog grass began to, take the place of the cultivated grasses and abandoned it altogether as a meadow, not deeming it best to take the manure from my uplands where it would produce the best of hay, and put it on 0 swamp where it would only produce very inferior article. It would have been more pleasant to have chronicled 8 perfect success in the reclamation of a swamp than to acknowledge it's failure, but my duty as 8 correspondent of your valuable paper requires of me that I should give fuir statement of both sides of this very important subject.
 This experiment was laying out at a dear rate, and when see in the agricultural papers letters recommending large outlays in retaining swamps, I am disposed to say, take care that you do not get swamp ed. <. -.s.s.s. .... sa. There is striking analogy between an animal and a vegetable. Both are alike dependent upon suitable food for their growth and development. Oats are the most natural and appropriate food for a horse, yet horse will not long continue in good health confined to oats as his only food. So swump muck is very useful as a part of the food from which to grow a crop of hay, yet swamp muck alone will only make 8 very poor quality of either hay or corn, or of any other crop in fact the greater the variety of food we give either to crop or an animal, the better will be the quality of either. Some ani- malls and some crops require greater va- riety of food than others.
 Indeed, if we would make 8 frst-rate crop, or frst-rate animal of any kind, the greater the variety of soil for the crop or of food for the animal, the more sure will 1t be of success in either case. 5il.s
 The best use that can be made of swamp muck, is to throw it into heaps immediate ly after having and let it remain until the 1 first s1edding in the fore part of the win ter and then draw it upon the uplands. and as much of it should be placed in the barn-yard, in the barn cellars and under the stable floors, as can be kept without being in the way, and as much as possible be placed in large heaps for future use il the compost heap. Ifai aot 99tit14 s-t5 f. F It should be constantly borne in mind that the liquid portion of the manure, il well absorbed in muck is fully as yalua Eble as the solids, either for top-dressine for meadows or for blowing under fol
 titled crops. Swamp muck, however should not be used until it has lain at leas
 a year out of the swamp, or long enougl
 for all the bog roots to be fully decayed
 and past any probability of sproutins or they will take root on the upland crop of bog grass on upland will be th'
 result, and the roots if they get thor ough footho1d are very difficult to get rit
 of. !.lut ,t s..zlg
 | Uplands, with a sufficient quantity o I muck mixed in to make the soil of darl
 color, are in better condition to with
 stand long drought than lands that hay
 been enriched with more active manure as it will absorb and hold moisture mt1cl
 longer and give it of as it may be required
 for the use of the plant. .r .1s4,...y.s..e l In this correspondence have given tn
 result of my own experience and obserya
 ton in retaining swamps. a e.-. I i',.- sis. TIT. 's....'.S4 2 s4.s T. L. HART. ''a West Cornwall. *....5 ....5 s.,...
 sf CANAAN Sent in one hundred and elevel I native Canaanites Philistines?) to Hart
 ford, last week, says the Herald, 'swhicl Lefty half of them had never seen befor I einagine the deplorable condition of thos
 6ru6rad huma0 hain0a who had nnvn