44 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



long, four feet wide, and three and two-thirds feet deep. This 

 part of the lot being low, what we took from the ditch was loam 

 and vegetable mud, and I think was worth twice the expense of 

 throwing out. We then dug a trench five feet wide, in which 

 we built a wall, which, I think, paid the expense of building. 

 We then dug the stones that could be easily removed, and filled 

 the ditch three feet high, wliich took over seventeen cords. 



The amount of labor expended in removing stones and filling 

 the ditch, was three days' work for two men and one yoke of 

 oxen, amounting to |4.50, (I then hired cheap by the month). 

 We then ploughed it, and the amount of labor expended, to- 

 gether with turning over turfs and digging stones, was $10.50. 

 In May, 1850, we began digging and hauling rocks to the trench 

 we had dug for the wall ; then ploughed and harrowed it, except 

 one-fourth of an acre which was covered with rocks, roots and 

 water, it being a kind of basin. We then planted it with corn 

 and potatoes, hoed the corn twice and the potatoes once. The 

 potatoes grew finely, but in the fall were an entire failure by 

 the rot. The corn was very good and harvested in September. 

 We then dug a ditch south of what I called the basin, running 

 from west to east, one hundred and fifty feet long, four feet 

 wide, and three and a half feet deep ; also two other ditches, 

 running north from the one last mentioned, four feet wide, 

 three and a half feet deep, and forty-five feet long, and one at 

 the end of the two, which carried it through the field. We 

 also dug one from the first to the second, uniting them alto- 

 gether, and making in the whole, thirty-six rods. 



The committee will see two advantages from these ditches ; 

 one to drain the land and save the loam, and the other to re- 

 ceive the stones. In May, 1851, we ploughed twice and 

 harrowed it, carried on a little manure, and carried off all 

 the loose roots and sods. We planted it with corn and potatoes, 

 hoed twice, and had an excellent crop. In 1852, we sowed it 

 with barley and grass seed. The barley produced thirty bushels 

 to the acre, leaving a large crop of rowcn on the land. 



I think the crops of corn, potatoes and barley, have well paid 

 the expense of labor in improving the land. We have since 

 taken off three crops of hay, which have been estimated at five tons 

 each year. If I reckon this hay at $12.50 per ton standing, it 



