80 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



in perfection, all the grains, vegetables and fruits of a more 

 genial climate. 



The farmers of Norfolk county have not the obstacles to 

 contend with, which once baffled the endeavors and lessened 

 the comforts of the farmer alluded to in Maine. But how 

 many acres, of nearly every large farm in the county, are 

 now comparatively worthless in their natural state, which pos- 

 sess all the elements of fertility, and might be rendered abun- 

 dantly productive by a judicious system of drainage ? How 

 much coarse, sour herbage, or pale, stinted vegetation may be 

 seen, caused by excessive, though concealed moisture ? It may 

 be supposed that while the moisture is below the surface, or 

 but seldom apparent above it, there can be no necessity for 

 draining. Yet the quantity of water actually discharged by a 

 single drain from lands in such a state, will often exceed all 

 previous belief. And the subsequent fertility of the soil and 

 earlier maturity of the crop upon it will clearly demonstrate 

 the importance and benefit of an operation, the effects of which 

 no quantity or quality of manure alone could have produced. 



Undoubtedly there are many large tracts of low, moist 

 ground, that cannot be thoroughly drained ; especially on the 

 borders of the Charles River. But such tracts may be greatly 

 benefited by digging ditches in them at proper intervals, and 

 throwing the excavated soil upon the surface, so as to shape it 

 into beds, rounded up, and having considerable elevation in the 

 centre of each. Grass seed sown on these beds, with a good 

 top-dressing of manure, would grow luxuriantly and yield 

 heavy crops. 



But it may be said that the expense and labor attending the 

 drainage of moist, and the reclamation of waste lands, is an insu- 

 perable objection to the practice, with most common farmers. 

 We admit that such an objection may properly cause many to 

 hesitate about such undertakings. But Ave arc disposed, after 

 all, to think the objection in most cases are imaginary rather 

 than a real and sufficient one. "Wc have in mind a reclaimed 

 bog, in the town of Franklin, of which, we presume, a detailed 

 statement will be given, in its proper place in this volume, 

 and which strikingly proves the folly of supinencss and a timid 

 apprehension of failure, as a hindcrancc to such an enterprise. 



This meadow, or rather this once useless and unsightly bog, 



