RECLAIMED SWAMPS. 187 



RECLAIMED SWAMPS. 



MIDDLESEX SOUTH. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The committee on whom devolved the duty of examining and 

 reporting on reclaimed swamp lands, having performed that 

 service, offer the following report as the result of tlieir doings. 



The claimants for premiums were four, to wit : William 

 Buckminster, of Framingham ; John, and Curtis Chamberlain, 

 of Southborough, and one of the members of the committee. 



The sensations produced by witnessing such swamps and 

 meadows as theirs, — originally cold, dreary and dismal, — so 

 thorougldy reclaimed, cannot but be a source of delight to all 

 beholders, especially to the owners thereof, and those whose 

 tastes harmonize with such improvements. 



The grounds of Mr. Buckminster, and those of the other 

 claimants, contain, in the aggregate, more than twenty acres, 

 and yielded upon an average, more than two tons of hay per 

 acre, affording the best possible proof of the utility of such 

 improvements. 



It is no longer an experiment but an admitted fact, that such 

 reclaimed lands are more productive, and yield a greater profit 

 than any other, in proportion to the amount invested in improve- 

 ments, and it is gratifying to observe the progress annually 

 made in this kind of improvement. Different local circum- 

 stances may require a somewhat different process to be adopted, 

 but the committee are satif^^ied from their limited experience 

 and observation, that unless it be possible to drain such lands, 

 all attempts at reclamation are futile and visionary. 



The statement made by William Buckminster on a former 

 occasion, contains a general description, and probably as univer- 

 sally applicable as any other. He says : " My mode of turning 

 cranberry bog into English mowing ground, was to cover all the 

 ' wild grass and vines with gravelly soil from the islands in it and 

 the adjoining higher grounds, having first cut ditches to drain 

 it completely as nearly four rods asunder as the lay of the land 



