190 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



for the purposes intended. The whole body of the small stones 

 will become impervious by the sediment, filling every opening 

 and crevice, and some of the flat stones will get displaced, com- 

 pletely closing up the drain ; while those constructed properly, 

 will remain unimpaired for generations. Some, thus constructed 

 more than thirty years since, are now in all respects as perfect 

 as when first made. It will, therefore, probably be found less 

 objectionable to leave drains wholly open than to adopt an im- 

 perfect method of covering them. 



The land, last described, after being properly drained, has, in 

 most cases, been covered with three or four inches of gravel, and 

 cultivated with fallow crops one or two years at first, and occa- 

 sionally afterwards. 



The first attempt, some thirty years since, to plough swamp 

 land, was the occasion of many shafts of ridicule, dealt out with 

 unsparing hand upon the owner, he being represented as spoil- 

 ing his swamp, — of being a fool, crazy, with many other kin red 

 epithets ; but he has outlived such prejudice against that kind 

 of improvement, and has the satisfaction of beholding a verdant 

 lawn, producing annually, with ordinary culture, from two to 

 three tons per acre, instead of a dismal morass, covered with 

 coarse grass, reeds and bulrushes, and in not having the evening 

 rendered hideous by the croaking concerts of frogs and kindred 

 reptiles, and swarms of mosquitos serenading in every room, 

 where repose is sought in vain, on account of their incessant 

 buzzing. 



Seth Davis, Chairman. 



HAMPSHIRE. 



Report of Theophilus P. Huntington. 



Two premiums were offered for the best experiments in 

 reclaiming swamp lands, not less than one acre, commencing in 

 1855. Entries were made by Messrs. David, Kelita and Avery 

 D. Hubbard, of Sunderland, of different parts of a reclaimed 

 swamp of thirty acres. Drains had been dug at proper dis- 

 tances, and an outlet forced, at great expense, through a stub- 

 born rock. The unprofitable swamp has become productive 



