EECLAIMED MEADOWS. Gl 



turning the farrow handsomely ten inches deep, and occupying 

 eight days with the labor. The lands were four rods wide ; 

 and the furrows drained the water to the ditch which crossed 

 the lot, and left the land dry. The next spring it was sowed 

 with oats, herds-grass, redtop and clover seed, producing a 

 good crop of oats. The grass seed took well, and yielded a 

 ton and one half of good hay, to the acre, for five years after 

 it was seeded, without any manure. Three years ago I planted 

 three-quarters of an acre of this land with potatoes, manured 

 in the hill, producing a good crop. The next spring it was 

 sown witli oats, seeded with grass seed without manure ; and 

 the two last seasons I have mowed at the rate of two tons of 

 good hay, to the acre. Last fall, the remainder of this piece 

 was ploughed, and about the middle of May last, planted with 

 Indian corn, manured in the hill with seven cartloads to the 

 acre ; five bushels of shell lime and half a bushel of plaster 

 to the acre, dropped in the hills. I think there were sixty 

 bushels of shelled corn, to the acre. 



Five years ago, I made a ditch sixty rods on the north side 

 of the lot, as far east as the woods, which helps the north side 

 of the lot very much. There is one acre and a half of wood- 

 land on this lot, eighteen acres mowing and tillage land. I 

 have, for a few years past, planted three or four acres, and 

 sowed about as much with oats, and seeded with grass seed. 

 The crops on this eighteen acres last year, were, ten tons of 

 good, and four tons of poor hay, one hundred and fifty bushels 

 of corn, and thirty bushels of oats. The crops this year, were 

 one hundred and seventy-five bushels of corn, one hundred and 

 fifty bushels of oats, twenty bushels of rye, eight tons of 

 good hay, and three tons of poor hay. The wood paid for the 

 labor of cutting the brush — one acre which I cleared, yielding 

 very good wood. From the remainder, the wood and timber 

 had been cut off, and it had grown up to alders and white 

 bushes, covered with moss. 



Hadley, Nov. 8th, 1853. 



