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The improvements in different parts of the county are quite 

 remarkable, and to be seen to some extent in almost every 

 town. There are still large tracts to be recovered. It is hoped 

 that what has been done will excite a universal ambition to 

 convert every such worthless bog mto a fruitful field. While 

 farmers are constantly seeking to enlarge their number of acres, 

 how much is it to be desired that those, which they already 

 have, should be brought into a condition of productiveness. 

 The usual objection to all improvements, that they cannot af- 

 ford them, will not apply here, where by an outlay of twenty- 

 five dollars the value of one or two hundred may be realized. 



15. But much more expensive improvements than those 

 to which I have referred have been made in the county, 

 and with a success, which has afforded a full remuneration for 

 the labor and money expended. On the farm of Nathan 

 Smith, Jr., in Waltham, and so likewise on Mr Phinney's 

 farm, in Lexington, considerable tracts, which it was not easy 

 to drain by a ditch, have been redeemed in this mode. The 

 whole ridge of broken land, which is included in Lexington 

 and the upper part of Charlesto wn, and indeed the whole of 

 this region, abounds in large rocks and stones of granite. Jt is 

 as important for the improvement of the uplands that these 

 rocks should be removed, as for the bogs that they should be 

 drained. In order to effect this they have been frequently 

 piled up in walls of four and six feet thickness, or made up 

 into single heaps on different parts of the farm. In the im- 

 provements to which I now refer, two purposes have been 

 answered — the first to drain the bog, the second to get rid of 

 the stones. Besides this, large amounts of raw material are ob- 

 tained for the compost heap. Accordingly, in these cases the 

 farmers have gone into the centre of the meadow and dug a 

 deep ditch, throwing all the mud upon one side ; they have 

 then, at a season either of frost in winter or extreme drought 

 in summer, filled in these places with stones until they were 

 raised to such a height as they judged best, and then they have 

 returned upon these stones the mud taken out of the ditches. 



