162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



on about a quarter of an acre of land, and put on nearly four 

 thousand one-horse cart loads of sand. The draining of the 

 lot, putting on the sand, and everything, has cost us between 

 four and five hundred dollars ; but the land is worth to us, 

 and will pay us interest on, more than a thousand dollars. 

 It is the most valuable piece of land we own for growing 

 crops of any l^ind. We have had several crops on it this 

 season, in small patches, but, of course, its special value to 

 us is in the plant business, for it grows a mass of fibrous 

 roots on our plants, which are really very valuable. I say, if 

 you are going to drain a swamp, don't get it too dry, but if 

 you do, put on sand, which will make it damp. 



D. B. HoTCHKiss, of Prospect. David M. Hotchkiss had, 

 about fifty years ago, three acres of peat swamp which lay 

 adjacent to a gravel knoll, and lay so that it could be drained. 

 It was ditched by one ditch laterally and three the other way, 

 about, I should say, eighty feet apart. The ditches were 

 about three feet deep, three feet broad on top and sixteen 

 inches at the bottom — broad enough for a man to stand in 

 and shovel. The soil was so soft that you could stick a rake 

 tail down its full length in any part of it. This land lay 

 •nearly level, and after the ditching was done, they went on 

 with a bog cutter which cuts the bog, most of them, and the 

 balance were cut by hand. The bogs were gathered into 

 piles and, after drying, burned. The surface of the ground 

 was plowed, ashes spread on, and then a crop of oats raised. 

 The next year a crop of potatoes was raised, and then the 

 field was sowed with herds-grass. The land before ditching 

 was worth, perhaps, fifteen dollars an acre. It paid in six 

 years the whole cost of ditching and labor, besides interest. 

 That land for thirty years was in good condition. Now it has 

 gone back, because the neighbor below us did not want us to 

 dig into his land deep enough to drain it. 



Question. What is the best kind of grass seed to sow on 

 a reclaimed bog meadow ? 



Mr. Scoville. Timothy, red-top, and orchard grass. 



