RECLAIMED MEADOWS. 59 



very poorest kind of grass where it was not covered witli 

 brush and stumps. We dropped the potatoes on the top of 

 the stubble, put the manure on, planted in drills, and turned 

 the turf on to the potatoes with spades, and did nothing more 

 to them until we dug them — we dug one hundred and thirty 

 bushels of potatoes. Labor of two men five days each, at 

 ciglitj'-five cents a day to plant, and two men four days each at 

 eighty-five cents a day to dig them. We planted again in 

 1850, at about the same expense for planting and digging, but 

 as the potatoes rotted badly, we obtained only about twenty- 

 five bushels of good potatoes. Have used no manure on the 

 lot since the first year, except plaster at the time of planting. 

 In 1851 planted again to potatoes, at about the same cost as 

 the two other years, and had one hundred and forty bushels of 

 good potatoes, which were dug early in October. We then 

 seeded down to grass. In 1852 we mowed it and got about 

 two tons of hay. In 1 853, this season, we obtained, as near 

 as we could estimate it, four and a half tons from the acre and 

 a half. 



We have improved our interval or meadow land by plough- 

 ing it the last of August or first of September, using care to 

 turn the sward over smooth, and when it cannot be well done 

 with the plough, have it done in some other wa}^, but have it 

 done, and then have it well rolled ; put on twenty cart loads 

 of good manure to the acre, spread evenl}^, and sow the hay 

 seed — using about one peck and a half of herds-grass and a 

 half a bushel of redtop to the acre. Harrow thoroughly 

 lengthwise of the furrow and roll it down. We have usually 

 got two tons of hay to the acre the first year, and not unfre- 

 quently two and a half tons. 



We have another piece near the road of about four acres 

 which, a few years since, was covered with bunches of brush 

 and produced but very little grass. We have cleared off the 

 brush, ditched it and smoothed the surface with the plough, 

 seeding down in the fall. We irritrate it all we can with a 

 small stream that runs through it, and now it is a fine piece of 

 mowing, and produces a good crop of hay. 



AuBUHN, October 24, 1853. 



