294 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and spread on three inches deep ; also manure dumped, a 

 load in a place, as near as would be needed. Potatoes were 

 planted the next season, producing a fair crop'. Early in Sep- 

 tember it was laid down to grass; and for nine years, with a 

 topdressing once in three years, it yielded from four to five 

 tons of good hay per acre yearly, including first and second 

 crops. At that time the sod became somewhat enfeebled ; 

 and, after haying, it was ploughed up by attaching the plough 

 to the forward axle of a wagon, thus allowing the cattle to 

 walk on the grass-sod. The same work may now be done 

 with the Oliver Chilled Plough without the wagon-wheels. 

 The land was manured, and again laid down to grass. 



For another nine years it has continued about the same 

 yield, with occasional top-dressing : now it begins to show 

 the need of renovating again, which will be done the coming 

 season, as before. The cost of reclaiming this swamp was 

 seventy-five dollars per acre, which may be considered as the 

 price of the land, as the improvement is for all time, and 

 the interest only should be charged against the products 

 as an investment. Now, instead of an unsightly, unhealthy 

 morass, inhabited by frogs, snakes, and crows, it is like a 

 , beautiful lawn in appearance, yielding two bountiful crops of 

 hay annually, and a very profitable part of a profitable farm, 

 at a cost of four dollars and a half interest per acre, consider- 

 ing the improvement as an investment. 



There are a few important points connected with this im- 

 provement, to which I desire to call attention : first the 

 box-drain as an outlet to the pond. This drain, being always 

 wet, and usually under water, will not decay ; and, being 

 covered, saves a strip six or eight feet wide, of very produc- 

 tive-land, and also the labor of frequently cleaning out an 

 open ditch. Second, the stone drain around the edge of the 

 swamp serves the important purpose of cutting off all the 

 water that would flow or soak into the swamp from the sur- 

 rounding high land ; and over it a much larger, crop grows 

 than anywhere else. If stones can be disposed of in any 

 other way to advantage, it is cheaper to lay tile-drains than 

 to use them, even if they are very near, because so much 

 less breadth of digging is required. The character of the 

 peat is so coarse and porous, that it allows the rainfall to 

 soak readily through it, rendering other drains comparatively 



