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it is now held — land which ten years since was purchased for 

 37 dollars per acre being now worth 300 dollars — is proof of 

 the improvement which it has undergone. The extensive hog- 

 establishment of Mr. Pierce, which 1 have already described, 

 by its abundant supply of manure has materially assisted its im- 

 provement. But very great improvements have been made 

 here in ditching and draining wet meadows, by which, within 

 a comparatively short time, lands which scarcely produced any 

 thing, or else an aquatic herbage which was worth little but as 

 litter, now bear as fine crops of the best of hay as the rake ever 

 gathered. These meadows are not peat meadows, but rather 

 a rich deposit of mud. The lands have been thoroughly drain- 

 ed by ditches and sometimes laid into beds ; a crop of potatoes 

 well manured taken from them, and then laid down to grass. 

 After this process they soon become capable of producing al- 

 most any crop. 



2. A very extensive improvement is now in progress in the 

 eastern part of this district, in what is called the Fresh Pond 

 meadows, which promises great results. An extensive tract of 

 land lying to the northward and eastward of Fresh Pond, part- 

 ly in Cambridge and partly in West Cambridge, embracing, as 

 one of the commissioners informed me, not less than five hun- 

 dred acres, formerly so saturated and flooded with water as to 

 be in many places scarcely passable, is now likely to be brought 

 into a state of productive cultivation ; and when once reclaim- 

 ed and reduced, cannot be estimated at less than two hundred 

 dollars per acre. If well cultivated it will pay the interest of 

 four hundred. The outlet is at the North into Medford river, 

 where the influx of the tide forces back the water upon these 

 meadows. The first object was to exclude the tide, and 

 then cut ditches into which the surface water might be led, and 

 cut off the springs on the margin of the meadow at the foot of 

 the hills and turn the water from them into the ditches. 



The petition to the courts by whose authority this improve- 

 ment has been carried on, desired "that the tides from the 

 'meadows during a certain portion of the season, should be 

 shut out ; and that there should be constructed at the joint ex- 



