371 



excellent hay to the acre, and the first crop paid the whole ex- 

 pense. This improvement strongly arrested my attention 

 when in that part of the country ; and Mr Gifford writes to 

 me that it would not be for his interest to sell it for 500 dol- 

 lars per acre, although when he began it did not pay the in- 

 terest of five dollars per acre, 



12. Another case of improvement, although not of peat-bog 

 yet of low wet land (producing scarcely any thing), and by ditch- 

 ing, draining, and manuring, making it in the highest degree 

 productive, is so remarkable that, although in another county, I 

 will not withold it, especially as I shall not have another op- 

 portunity of presenting it in this form. The land has been 

 thoroughly relieved from standing water; and without doubt 

 much of its productiveness is attributable to the application 

 of the wool waste. It belongs to the woolen factory near 

 Northampton, in Hampshire county, and is under the manage- 

 ment of the intelligent superintendent, S. Brewer. Recent ac- 

 counts of the same land speak of its undiminished pro- 

 ductiveness. 



" I find, on reference to the deed, that there are eight acres 

 and one hundred rods, about two thirds of which is a cold, un- 

 even, swaley, piece of land — and the residue, the last two years, 

 has been under high cultivation. 



When we purchased this lot four years since, nothing of any 

 consequence had been done to it for some time, and the first year 

 we did but little to it ourselves. The second we manured it 

 pretty high, and the third (which was last year) we put all on 

 it that it would bear. 



The result of the year 1837 (that part of the lot to which I 

 now particularly allude) has been as follows : — 



The land from actual measurement containing five hundred 

 and sixteen rods (3 acres, 36 rods), the product from the same 

 at two cuttings — the first July 8th and the second Sept. 6th — 

 has been 15 tons, 642 lbs. of the best quahty of English hay. 



About one half of the manure put upon this piece of land 

 was from the barn yard, and the other half our waste wool 



