The Portland daily press., 1878-08-19
AGRICULTURAL.
A Time for Draining swamps.

There is no better time than the present
Tor draining wet ground. Swamps are now
dry; work is not pressing; every foot of land
farmer owns should be made profitable, and
II this season is permitted to pass and this
work is neglected, year must elapse before
the opportunity returns. The first work Is
to cut the brush and weeds. If cut this
month, these will probably be killed outright
and nothing more be seen of them. The
dense growth should now be mown with
heavy scythe or brush hook close to the
ground, The tussooks cut off with O. grub hoe
or an adze, and the whale left to dry, when,
upon some rainy day, it should be burned in
heaps. By choosing a damp or wet day for
this work there will be no danger of the fire
escaping to other ground or to fence rows
and doing damage, or of burning the surface
OF the swamp too deeply and injuring it.
When the surface is burned off the ground
should be grubbed-where this is necessary
and plowed. Alter this heavy harrow
should be used to tear the rought clods to
pieces. No better plan than this can be pur-
sued to reduce the surface to a condition of
usefulness. Constant narrowing will be
needed, both to break up the surface and to
destroy the sprouting weeds. All the intrac.
table clods that will not break up should be
collected and burned; and in places where
the surface cannot be otherwise leveled, the
spade should be brought into use. If grass
seed is to be sown or other crops put into the
ground, 1t will have to be prepared differently
for either purpose. Grass seed should not be
sown until the surface has been mellowed
and made level and even. 1t is better to
wait year longer and have good meadow
than to make a poor one now. If the ground
has been sufficiently drained corn will sue
coed well upon it.; potatoes will also do well
upon newly drained swamp, if 1t has been
made DRIP. Oats will be good crop for such
land, even if it is yet somewhat wet Swamp
land cannot be made perfectly dry unless the
drainage is thorough and deep. or time is
given for the water, held as by sponge, to
find its way to the bitches. and oats will be
very good crop to grow while the ground is
drying and settling. A thorough blowing
should be given next spring and more har.
rowing, and after one crop has been taken
the grass may be sown. A mixture of red
top, timothy, and orchard grass with some
Alsike clover, will be the best. One bushel
each OF red top and orchard grass, four quarts
OF timothy, and six pounds of Alsike clover
per acre will be proper quantity. For pas
ture this will give a succession of grasses,
and for moving it will furnish an early crop
of hay and good pasture afterward, and an
aftermath that will spring up quickly.
The meadow will not be perfect until thor
ough and deep drainage has been effected
1t is therefore best to wait for the final seed
ing until time has been taken or means pro-
vided for tile draining at intervals of at least
Sc feet apart, and the filling up and leveling
of the bitches. Open bitches are costly 10
keep in repair and are nuisance, and the
thorough drainage by tiles will in the end be
an economy of money and an addition to the
value Of the land. We have found thai the
grass that can be grown on the spaces for
merly occupied by the broad open bitches is
sufficient to pay the interest on the cost OF
the drains. If this is so, the increased value
OF the whole land should be an irresistible
incentive to the proper completion of such
an improvement as this.-N. Y. Times,