so BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



rnoM J. 31. siiAAv. 



" Swamps in Waterford are more cleared than formerl}-, and in some 

 instances are drained by ditching. Not ranch is done further to reclaim 

 them. Cannot state the cost. They are mostly devoted to the pro- 

 duction of grass, and arc found to be iwotitable." 



FEOJI J. S. ML'RCH. 



"Swamp or meadow land in Dayton, has been reclaimed to consider- 

 able extent, and with ^tisfactory results. The cost is variable, some 

 swamps, being more filled with tough grass roots than others, require 

 more labor to clear them. 



I have on my farm, six acres of reclaimed swamp or meadow land. 

 I think it cost mc at least fifteen dollars per acre, to clear it of bushes 

 and stumps, and fifteen more to plough and lay it to grass. It took a 

 team of eight large oxen, with a large bog plough and four hands, and 

 we averaged about half an acre a day. Three acres of said land were 

 ploughed in beds two and a half rods wide. The other tlyee acres 

 were ploughed in beds four rods wide. I think the latter width pref- 

 erable, if the swamp be not too v/ct, as they are more convenient. 

 One and a half acres of said meadow, I sowed with winter wheat, on 

 the fifth of September. I sowed one and one-half bushels on the 

 piece, and half a bushel of herds grass seed. Both came up well, and 

 stood through the winter ; but the next spring and summer, the herds 

 grass choked the wheat, so that I cut considerable of it for fodder. 

 The herds grass grew as high as my shoulders, witli handsome 

 heads. I got but seven and one half bushels of wheat from my bushel 

 and a half of seed ; whilst my neighbor, Levi L. Peavey, on precisely 

 the same kind of land, on the opposite side of the fence, got fifteen or 

 sixteen bushels from five pecks sowing ; and his was sowed later than 

 mine, and did not look near so well in the spring. But he did not 

 sow hay seed. I have mowed the land last named, three years, and 

 the remaining four and a half acres two years ; and I think it has av- 

 eraged from one to one and one-half tuns of hay per acre, which hay I 

 sold last year and the year before in Biddeford market, for eighteen 

 dollars per tun. No manure was used. ]5efore ploughing, I cut, as I 

 suppose, from half a tun to a tun of ordinary fresh hay. As a draw- 

 back to meadow land, I think it is more subject to rust than upland. 



Dr. Samuel Hight has done considerable in reclaiming swamp 

 land, and he infoi-ms me that he raises good potatoes on it, and they 

 have never been infected with the potatoe rot. He complains also of 

 the rust injuring grass. 



