114 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



cultivation, which was always flooded in the spring, and parched 

 in dry, hot seasons, which was disfigured by an open ditch, and 

 by ridges and dead furrows, which had been for half a century 

 a reproach to the adopted system of farming, began at once to 

 improve in condition and appearance. Even during the winter 

 of 1857-8, the water was carried off from it to a degree never 

 known before, and although it was by no means brought to a 

 proper condition, still the ploughing in the spring of 1858, and 

 the cultivation during the season, were very materially improved 

 over previous years. 



In the season of 1858 the crop upon it was corn. The month 

 of June was very wet, and in some of the deepest hollows, 

 where water had stood for years, the corn was killed. Perhaps 

 two thousand square feet of land suffered in this way, for the 

 loss of which I was more than compensated by the gain of 

 between five and six thousand feet, previously occupied by the 

 open ditch. As the season advanced, the rains of August* and 

 September were carried off more rapidly. The crop of corn 

 was sixty bushels to the acre, including the land where the 

 yield had been destroyed or reduced by water. At the close of 

 the season, in November, 1858, I laid a thousand feet of inter- 

 mediate lateral drains through the lowest points of the field, at 

 an expense of $20. I also commenced subsoil ploughing, but 

 was obliged to abandon it on account of the early freezing. 



The spring of 1858 found the land in much better condition 

 than it was the year previous. The winter and spring rains 

 soon vanished from its surface. The loam was more friable ; 

 the clay subsoil, as expressed by the workmen, was more brittle. 

 It was ploughed and manured in May, carefully cleaned with a 

 grubber, (for I was aware that the cultivation of the previous 

 year had not eradicated the twitch grass,) and sown with man- 

 golds, rutabagas and carrots. The soil was easily worked, and 

 the rows placed two feet apart, to allow the use of a horse-hoe 

 and grubber, an excellent labor saving implement for root cul- 

 ture, purchased for me in England by Mr. Sanford Howard. 

 The seeds germinated rapidly, indicating an increased warmth 

 in the soil. The plants had become visible in long green lines 

 across the field, which had been brought by repeated ploughings 

 to an apparent dead level, when, on the 17th of June, the effects 

 of thorough drainage were fairly tested. It will be remembered 



