RECLAIMED MEADOWS. 49 



I, Wingate Merrill, chairman of the Overseers of the Poor, 

 in Danvers, having been fully acquainted with all the opera- 

 tions above detailed, the same having been executed with the 

 approbation of the Board of Overseers, am clearly of the 

 opinion that the crop, the present season, has not been over- 

 estimated by Mr. Page, the master of the house. 



Royal A. Meriam's Statement. 



In the year 1808, forty-five years ago, a piece of worthless 

 meadow, the most worthless of any land on the farm, was oper- 

 ated upon, (probably one of the first efforts made in the county^ 

 for redeeming bog meadows,) by covering with gravel and about 

 two inches of loam from the roadside, and sowing down to. 

 English grass, and I have never known this land to produce 

 less than one ton of English hay to the acre. This year,, 

 the crop was larger. A few bunches of meadow grass have 

 occasionally made their appearance, which have been shaved 

 off, perhaps half a dozen times. 



In 1832, I engaged with some ardor in working over bog 

 meadow, by levelling up a part of my garden, which bordered 

 on a bog. Some more of the adjacent bog was, at that time, 

 reclaimed ; but I found that I was working at great disadvan- 

 tage, on account of the superabundant water, and that I could 

 not do much till my neighbor below should open a drain for 

 the water. The land, being parsonage, had, like most of such 

 lands, been suffered to remain in its native state. 



Ten or twelve years ago, this parsonage land came into the 

 possession of Richard Phillips, Jr., who took hold of it in good' 

 earnest, and opened a drain through for about one hundred 

 rods, cleared off the bushes, and worked over the soil. Six or 

 eio-ht acres were thus worked over, two of which made an im- 

 penetrable swamp, inhabited only by reptiles and rabbits, and 

 from which he cleared off and burned about two hundred tons 

 of bushes and brambles, and, in the language of the workmen, 

 " bulls'-heads," being bunches of serge grass, the bigness of a 

 flour barrel, and half as high. 



Tliii piece of work is thought, by all observers, to be the 

 greatest improvement that has been made in the town, of late 

 years, the land being now as productive as any like quantity in 

 7* 



