Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-08-29

A correspondent of the New York Times
writing from Goshen, N. Y, gives an account
of what may be done by little enterprise in
the way of converting swamps into good ara
BILE land. He says:
when the Erie railway was being con-
structed the engineers encountered q vast mo-
rass in the town of Chester, four miles east
of this village. 1t covered nearly five hun
bred acres, and was filled with treacherous
quagmires and springs that were almost bot
tomless. To construct a foundation for the
road-bed of the railway across this great
swamp required the driving of piles TO the
depth of one hundred feet and the use of
hundreds of thousands of loads of stones and
dirt. The building of the mile of road ne
eessary TO cross the swamp called for a great
err outlay of money than any five miles of the
road between Piermont and Jersey City. The
tract of land was not considered worth the
nominal tax collected from its owners, and
for twenty years after the road was built re-
manned in its noisome condition, the home of
malaria and deadly fevers.
Twenty years ago farmer conceived the
idea of draining a portion of the tract and
making it tillable soil. by ditching, he re-
claimed sixty acres. The first acre he bought
cost him one dollar. When it was found that
the draining left as a soil the finest black
muck, composed almost entirely of vegetable
mould, the price advanced to seventeen dol
lars an acre. After the sixty acres were re-
claimed, the price still further increased, UNI
til to day as high as one thousand dollars has
been paid for the reclaimed land. The ruling
price is five hundred dollars an acre. The
great value of the land is owing to its extra
ordinary adaptability to the culture of onions.
A crop of eight hundred bushels of onions to
the acre is not uncommon, and the Greycourt
onion meadows are celebrated throughout
the country. About three hundred acres are
under cultivation this year, and the success
of the onion business in the meadows has led
to the retaining of similar lands in other
parts of the county, until it is believed that
the onion crop of Orange county will amount
to five hundred thousand bushels this year.
The average price received by onion raiscrs
is one dollar per bushel. The average yield
is three hundred bushels to the acre The
crop is almost invariably sold for cash as
soon as it is ready for market, and rs it ma
lures early in the season, the farmer is allow
ed abundant time to keep his land in the con-
dition necessary to its productivencss.
There are seventeen thousand acres of
swamp land in the Waikiki valley which will
eventually be converted into this muck soil,
which is the best in the world for vegetable
raising The land. after draining, is titled
with the slightest labor Onion seed is sown
by hand-drill, and the greatest labor is i'll
keeping down the weeds after the plant be-
gins to grow. This work is done by boys
and girls. Hundreds of these may be seen in
the growing season on their hands and knees
between the onion rows, pulling up the weeds
that the rich soil calls rapidly into existence.
The wedding requires skill and care, MS the
soil is so loose that there is constant danger
of tearing up the young and tender plants by
earth. The red onion is the variety grown
most successfully as the dark muck gives
the white onion dirty hue which injuries its
marketable value. When the onion tops are
at the height of their growth their odor fills
the air for great distances around.