FARMS. 161 



mortgages. The " Appleton Farm " contains about two hun- 

 dred and fifty acres, of which fifty are bog-meadow, and eighty 

 are rocky pasture. One of the committee, who was well ac- 

 quainted with the farm before it came into the possession of its 

 present proprietor, five years ago, stated that it then produced 

 only about six tons of English hay, and twenty-five tons of fresh 

 meadow hay. This year, it was estimated that Mr. Appleton 

 had cut seventy-five tons of English hay, and two or three tons 

 of meadow hay — the latter the product of the then last piece of 

 unreclaimed meadow, which has since been ploughed. There 

 were, in addition, considerable crops of corn, potatoes, turnips, 

 carrots, cabbages, Hungarian grass, rape, &c, &c. 



Mr. Appletou's chief aim, in his plans for improving his farm 

 (as he explained them to the committee) is to show what can 

 be done in reclaiming low wet lands, which he regards as the 

 main future dependence of the farmers of New England for 

 supplies of hay. His first step, after having had the low grounds 

 of his farm surveyed, and the levels accurately taken, was to 

 have a broad open ditch dug through them, with a sufficient fall 

 to carry off the water emptied into it from smaller ditches and 

 covered drains. This main ditch, which must be over a mile in 

 length, and which has an average depth of at least three feet, is 

 the foundation of Mr. Appleton's improvements, as it enables 

 him to thoroughly drain all of the meadows through which it 

 passes. 



Having secured an outlet for the water, Mr. Appleton sur- 

 rounded a meadow of ten acres with a " catch-water ditch," say, 

 eighteen inches deep, leading, at long intervals, into the main 

 ditch. This meadow had been kept constantly wet by springs 

 in the headlands which surround it, but the plan of drainage 

 was so successful that it was easily ploughed and laid down to 

 grass. The committee walked over a part of this meadow, 

 which was ploughed last fall for the first time, and sowed with 

 herdsgrass in December. It had received a top-dressing, after 

 the sowing, of a compost of loam from under pasture walls, 

 mixed with ashes at the rate of thirty bushels to the acre, and 

 a small quantity of barnyard manure. The committee differed 

 in their judgment of the yield then on the ground, estimating 

 it at from two tons to two and a half tons to the acre. 



A piece of three acres, comprising a part of the above men- 



21* 



