RECLAIMED MEADOWS. 41 



I added to this about half an acre previously burnt and gravel- 

 led, making in all four rods short of two acres, sowed with oats 

 without manure and seeded down. The expense of reclaiming 

 I estimate at twenty-five dollars. 



In the fall of 1853 I ploughed another acre, and the next 

 spring wheeled on sand and loam, covering the surface about 

 an inch thick, which, together with ninety-eight rods planted 

 with potatoes the year previous, making in all one acre and 

 ninety-two rods, I sowjcd with oats and seeded down, and this 

 year cut from the same, three tons and 1,140 pounds of hay. 

 Expense of reclaiming, eighty dollars. 



Four acres, a part of which was thickly covered with birch 

 and alders, and the rest with brush, were cleared, and the 

 brush burnt in 1853, at an expense of about thirty-two dollars ; 

 the value of the wood obtained, nine dollars ; leaving a balance 

 of twenty-three dollars expense. In the summer of 1854 I 

 burnt the sod of this, and two additional acres, covered with 

 meadow grass, and ploughed the same in the fall. Last spring 

 I again ploughed it, planting five acres with potatoes, corn, and 

 corn-fodder, without manure, and, from what I have dug of 

 the potatoes, judge that the yield will be one hundred and 

 twenty bushels to the acre, though the crop is somewhat re* 

 duced by the water standing between the hills in that rainy 

 weather in July. The fodder was a first rate yield ; but I could 

 not estimate the amount on account of having fed it out to the 

 cattle from day to day. The corn will probably be from forty- 

 five to fifty bushels to the acre. 



One of the above mentioned six acres, which I did not plant 

 last spring, has since been ploughed, and is ready for tillage or 

 seeding down, being fully reclaimed. The amount of labor 

 bestowed on these six acres, since 1854, I estimate at forty- 

 five dollars, which, added to the previous twenty-three dollars, 

 makes the whole expense of reclaiming sixty-eight dollars, 

 being al)out two-thirds less per acre than the average of the 

 other two pieces, owing to the deep and thorough burning of 

 the sod, while the ashes also give a body to the soil, which will 

 obviate in part or entirely the necessity of gravelling when 

 seeded down. 



Lancaster, September 28, 1855. 

 6* 



