jjg BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



EVENING SESSION. 



The President stated that the general subject of grass culture 

 would be resumed, and called upon the member from Kennebec 

 County. 



Mr. Horace Colbourx of Windsor. I am not in the hab.it of 

 making apologies, neither am I in the habit of public speaking, 

 and it seems like taking a step backward to call upon a common, 

 plain farmer, who is obliged to work hard to get a living, to follow 

 so able a speaker as has entertained and instructed us this after- 

 noon, nor would it be possible for me to speak of scientific 

 methods ; yet such practical experience as I have had is at your 

 service. It relates chiefly to reclaiming bog or swale lands. 



It has been truly said, that whoever makes two spears of grass 

 to grow where but one grew before, benefits mankind, and if the 

 farmers of Maine had heeded that saying in past years, as they 

 should have done, they would not be where they are now. 



Wherever I have traveled in Maine, I see a great portion of the 

 best grass lands covered with bushes and other obstructions to 

 culture. Whoever has taken notice the last year, may have seen 

 a good crop of grass on what we call reclaimed swamp lands, 

 while you could count the gravel stones at a distance on the up- 

 lands, and, in some places, you could see countless grasshoppers 

 also. Some farmers object to swamp lands beeause they say they 

 cannot raise the better grasses on them, and that the varieties of 

 swale grass are good for nothing. But the present year will be 

 sufficient to convince them to the contrary. We find those who 

 have those grasses have no difficulty in getting them all eaten up 

 and to good advantage. In 1839, I purchased the farm, or a por- 

 tion of it, on which I now live. The soil is mainly clay loam, 

 through which runs a small stream that empties into the western 

 branch of the Sheepscot River, on each side of which was a strip 

 of interval, varying in width from two to twenty rods, and for 

 that width it was covered with alders, elder bushes and with 

 almost anything that could drift upon it. Wherever the bank 

 comes down steeply towards the brook, the former occupauts had 

 hauled logs from the highlands and dumped them on to the inter- 

 val, and it looked like a rather hard job to clear the piece. 

 After I moved on to the farm, it began to be whispered around 

 that I had bought Mr. such-a-one's bog, and much wonder was 



