The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-05-26
gVRNNt MAY 2e 1878

The latter keep fat on the grass aud other
| roots and bulbs, and on the innumerable
| shell fish-crabs, fddlers and muscels-
| found there. Cattle find in the high old
grass O warm shelter from the winter wind,
and green bite about every tussock and
the young grass, protected by the old,
springs up even during the winter. Hence
marsh cattle aud hogs are always in good
| condition, and are in marketable order
when upland stock is poor. About the lst
of March the old grass of the preceding
year becomes dry aud hard and may be
readily burned, leaving on the surface q
deposit of carbon and ashes. On this the
young grass in few days springs up, and
these vast plains become one emerald of
verdure, and so continue until the ensuing
winter. Cattle become very fat, and the
butter and cheese made from THE pasturage
cannot be excelled.
A coarse, rough hay is made from marsh
grass, which oxen will eat when hungry. 1t
Is better adapted, however, for bedding for
stock, in barn yards, hog pens and stables
and will greatly increase and add to the
value of home made manures. Repeated
and constant cuttings, however, greatly
improve the marsh grass, and in the couree
of a year or two an excellent and succu-
lent hay can be obtained from it. In Dem
erara and other places in that quarter,
there are lands precisely like our marshes,
in cultivation, which, under o sy stem of
csDa!ing, ditching, flood gates and en-
banking, produce extraordinary crops of
sugar, rice and tobacco. This system of
culture involves no more expense than the
clearing of a tract of heavy timbered land,
and you avoid the expense of fencing, be-
cause your canals and bitches constitute
your fences. The dirt from the ditch,
banked along it, constitutes your fence,
and soon becomes solid and firm. Excellent
walls and even houses may be constructed
Nf the tnrf in nhlOpU and
good fuel may be likewise thus obtained.
An ordinary hand will ditch two rods
day, but an Irish expert will accomplish
much more. In three weeks after
the tide and rain-water are drawn
away, theee marshes may be plowed.
menced in the fall, so as to plant cotton
and rice by the first of March. Two crops
of rice may be made, and as the marshes
are all within the influence of the sea, it is
presumed that, unless under very unu
sual temperature, cotton would continue TO
blow " and mature q month later than on the
uplands.
The tide usually Gibbs or flows once in
twenty. four hours, usually from one to
three feet, according to the direction and
volume of the wind. The marsh lands, in
their natural state, are seldom overfiowed,
except during gale or long protracted
blows.
Most of the marshes are iDtersected by
bayous or natural canals, that greatly ia
cilitate drainage and serve for water fences,
These abound in fab and crabs.
A plantation once made in the marsh
is made forever. The soil is inexhaustible,
being composed mostly of phosphates.
Used as fertilizer Oh pine lands, the
marsh mud has been thoroughly tested on
sea- island cotton, Irish potatoes, cabbage,
caulifower, onions, etc. For its specific
action on cotton refer to Henry Saucier,
Sr. Eeq., of Bay st. Louis, who has tested
it thoroughly. And for it's adaptability for
vegetables reference is made to Capt. John
J. Saucier, Waveland, New Orleans and
Mobile r. R., whose find garden will speak
for itself. This intelligent gentleman cul-
tivates ordinary pine land, fertilized exclu-
sively with marsh mud.
In regard to health, people usually as
sociate malarial diseases with marshes. l
leave the why and wherefore of this to
medical men, who are alone competent to
elucidate such phenomena. But having
lived on and adj djacent to the marshes of the
Mississippi sea board for many yeare, my
experience is that there is no healthier To-
cality anywhere. Malarial fevers and chills
and fevers are not known. Since the Bon
net Care crevasse, a food of Mississippi
river water, passing into lake Pontchar-
train, and along our coast, has brought
some chile and fever. Previous to this,
rarely ever saw a case, and never had one
are enveloped by salt marsh, and in 25
years l have not had to call in a physician.
Oar upland pine woods are very healthy,
but not so much so as the marsbes.
Very truly yours,
7 r IT