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and bum them on the ground or remove them to the upland. 

 Part of our peat meadow has no hassocks or bogs. My practice 

 has been to plant before breaking the surface. I place a shov- 

 elful of manure and earth, or any good compost, in hills 

 on the ground about 3 feet apart for my potatoes, and in dressing 

 them with bog hoes, cover them from the surface sods and 

 make potato hills of a suitable size ; they require but little 

 more attention until they are dug. After this, if the surface is 

 sufliciently rotten or pulverized, I give it a dressing and sow 

 with timothy and redtop ; if not, I plough and plant another 

 year. The more gravel or loam I carry on the better. The 

 first crop of potatoes I think pays for the labor. After it is 

 sown down it will require to be ploughed or dressed every three 

 or fom* years. My meadow gives me two tons of hay to the 

 acre. Where the ground is too wet to be ploughed I cart on I 

 gravel and manure, and repeat every three or four years. Po- 

 tatoes and hay are the only crops I have succeeded in bringing 

 to profit. Oats will grow rank, but are liable to be blasted and 

 fall down. Wheat and rye, I think, will do no better ; but I 

 have experimented on a very small scale on the two latter. 

 Lime, plaster, and ashes T have never tried. The reason I 

 plough my ground on the meadow, instead of letting it lie and 

 dressing it every few years, is because I raise my potatoes on 

 it easier than on the upland. I think likewise the process of 

 ploughing and harrowing improves the soil by pulverizing and 

 warming the surface. The annual quantity of potatoes raised 

 on the meadow is from three to five hundred bushels." 



Dr. Bancroft's crops are excellent. Two winters since his 

 grass was entirely killed out by severe freezing, the meadows 

 being covered with ice. The gravel which he speaks of apply- 

 ing is from a clay bank in the neighborhood, and contains a 

 large portion of alumina. 



The meadows in Groton are quite extensive to the east and 

 west of the town : in the former case a tract of 100 acres ; in 

 the latter, of 150 acres. The soil is peat ; but of fine grain, 

 not abounding so much in fibrous matter as some neat, and but 



