RECLAIMING SWAMP-LANDS. 117 



groimd. The clover-seed was sown in the spring. The 

 herdsgrass was very large, averaging about three feet in 

 height ; there was no clover to be seen on this piece of land 

 the first crop. On this one and one-half acres there were 

 seven horse-loads of hay, and on the whole five acres thera 

 were twenty horse-loads the first crop and five the second ; 

 the summer of 1871 was very dry. 



As an experiment, I toolf four square rods of the meadow 

 and carted on sand and gravel, which cost me one dollar per 

 square rod, having to cart it about fifty rods ; it was manured 

 the same in quantity as it was where I ploughed it ; it was 

 spread, rolled and bushed ; where it was ploughed and all 

 prepared for the seed it cost thirty cents per square rod, sev- 

 enty cents per rod in favor of ploughing. The crop of hay 

 was about the same. 



In the year 1872 the five acres, the first mowing, which 

 was done the first of July, produced twenty horse-loads ; the 

 second twelve, mowed the first of Septemljer, and the third 

 crop is now quite large, to be left on the ground for winter 

 protection. 



There is some of the best land in Massachusetts which lies 

 profitless for the want of draining and clearing of stone. 

 But one thing must be more fully understood by farmers of 

 this State ; that no farming, or gardening, or fruit-raising 

 can be carried on to any profit without manure. And here 

 let mo say that in my opinion more than half of the farming 

 in this State is on the reducing system ; and one of the great- 

 est mistakes, so far as my observation goes, is, after the 

 farmer has reclaimed his meadow of swamp-land, he thinks 

 he has nothing more to do with it but to secure the crop, and 

 after mowing it five or six years " it runs out," as we call it, 

 and then he exclaims against reclaimed meadow and swamp- 

 land, when if he had given it a good top-dressing every other 

 year, he could have secured two good crops a year, making 

 four crops to one top-dressing of manure, and that ought to 

 satisfy every reasonable man. The main crop for the farmer 

 of Massachusetts to raise is not corn, nor oats, barley, wheat 

 or rye, but hay, liay ! and that is to be raised, not on our diy 

 fields, but on our moist lands. 



