■SECKETARY'S HEPORT. ■gl 



IVlr. Joseph Smith, 3d, of Dayton, and Mr. Thomas Day, of Bid- 

 'cleford, own a fifty acre lot of swamp land near me, whicli, since I call 

 l-emember, has been considered almost worthless, being covered Avith 

 a tangled growth of alders and willows, interspersed with a scattering 

 growth of elm, yellow ash, majDle, pine and fir. In the spring, it 

 would be vocal with the delightful music of the bull-frog. Said mead- 

 ©w has been cleared and ploughed, perhaps twenty years, and I think 

 it has produced more than a tun of hay to the acre, on an average, 

 during that time. The land being entirely level, it is a beautiful sight 

 to see the cocks of hay, in haying time. The frogs have disappeared, 

 and their music is no more. Lying ili sight of Avhere I write, I often 

 mark the striking contrast. 



Messrs. Smith and Day raise good 'Corn, potatoes and grain on their 

 swamp lands, in good seasons. The wire-worm, however, is trouble- 

 some. Mr. Smith mixes sea-sand with his manure, which, he says, is 

 a great preventive against the rust. He also thinks manure has more 

 effect on his swamp land than on upland. Col. John M. Goodwin and 

 Levi L. Peavy have made valuable improvements on their lowlands, 

 and with very beneficial results. On land that formerly produced 

 nothing but pool' fresh grass, flags, rushes, and other wild weeds and 

 bushes, they raise well-grown corn, potatoes, wheat, oats, and rank and 

 luxuriant herds grass. Col. Goodwin showed me a piece of herds 

 grass two years on one of his lots, the rankest grown, I think, I ever 

 saw. Others have made more or less improvement Avith good success. 

 I have known of but two instances where it did not succeed well, one 

 of which was spoiled in clearing, by being set fire to, in a very dry time, 

 which burnt the soil all off. And the other ha-d no seed sown but 

 •chaff" from the barn floor. 



Col. John M. Goodwin promised to make a statement of his oper- 

 ations on swamp oi- meadow lands, but has not done it. I believe he 

 lias cut three tuns of hay to the acre," 



As somewhat akin to the reclamation of swamp lands, yet 

 differing sufficiently to warrant and demand a separate consid- 

 eration, is the topic of 



Under-Draining. 



There is probably no subject connected with agriculture, of 



equal importance, which is both so little understood in theory, 



and so much neglected in practice, not in Maine only, but 



throughout the country at large^ as that of the drainage of land. 



6 



