158 BOARD OF AGRICULTTIRE. 



tained at an outlay consistent with the benefit they are likely to 

 produce. 



3d. The low meadow lands which are found to a greater or less 

 extent upon most farms in the county, are often of more value 

 than any other part of the farm, but their profit and usefulness 

 depend upon the degree of improvement and cultivation under 

 wliich they are managed. At present, there are thousands of acres 

 of such lands in the county that are neglected by the farmers and 

 considered almost worthless, which, if they were cleared of the 

 bushes and logs, and properly drained or ditched, would at once 

 become the best paying fields upon their farms. To reclaim these 

 low and boggy meadows is a work in which all farmers having such 

 lands should at once engage. In many cases the cost of doing 

 this is not heavy, while the increased value of the land and its 

 productive returns will more than pay the cost of improvement in 

 a single year. More will be said upon the management of wet 

 meadow lands in the division on grass culture. 



4th. The fourth class comprises the interval lands, which em- 

 brace the richest, most fertile and productive soils found in the 

 county. The Kennebec river, which runs directly through it, 

 together with the Sandy and Dead rivers, and the other large 

 streams in different parts of the county — particularly the Seven 

 Mile brook and the Wesserrunsett — form some of the most valua- 

 ble land, and comprising the best farms in the county. In many 

 places the intervals are so low that they are overflowed by the 

 heavy autumn rains, which deposit upon them a sediment of min- 

 eral and vegetable substances in a state of solution, and forming a 

 rich dressing of materials washed from the mountain sides and up- 

 land farms ; and in other situations, the intervals are so high as 

 not to be overflowed, and these must be manured by artificial means. 

 Both classes of intervals arc liighly productive ; the only difler- 

 ence being in one case they are manured without labor, in the 

 other farmers must apply dressing. These lands are excellent for 

 grass, and the higher intervals good for tillage. 



