MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 151 



from my barn cellar, and passed a brush harrow over it ; this 

 year, the crop was very heavy ; it was secured before a witness 

 and p>laced by itself, and measures on the scaffold's, over three 

 thousand cubic feet. 



Concord, September, 1849. 



Williain Parker'' s Statement. 



The piece of reclaimed swamp, to which I ask your atten- 

 tion, is in the town of Stow, and contains two acres, nine rods, 

 including ditches. It was formerly considered worthless, and 

 as it is within one hundred rods of my paper mill, I should 

 have been willing to have given the land, and paid a handsome 

 sum to any one who would have agreed, to make it look as it 

 now does. It Avas filled up with alders, and dogwood, and I 

 kept it in this state about nine years, and all I obtained from it, 

 during that time, was six and a half bushels of cranberries, all 

 of which were got in one year. After I had cut the brush off 

 there was no outlet to it, and a greater portion of the year, a 

 man could not Avith safety, go through it. I commenced about 

 eight years since, by putting two Irishmen at work upon it, to 

 cut a drain, which they accomplished in a couple of days. 

 One of them came to me, and said there was " as good peat in 

 that bog, as there was in Ireland." I asked him if he could 

 get some out, and his reply was, " get me a knife, and I will 

 show you cords of it in a short time." I did so, and he cut 

 out thirty cords and dried it fit for use, although it was the first 

 of September, which proved to be worth one dollar per cord 

 more than wood, to burn under our steam boiler, to dry paper 

 with. 



Wood at this time, was worth four dollars per cord. Every 

 year since, we have commenced in season, and have cut out 

 two hundred cords of peat, which we prefer to wood for our 

 use. From these two acres of land, I have cut and burned, in 

 four years, over seven hundred and thirty-five cords of the best 

 peat I ever saw, the most of which I had got out and cured on 

 contract, for one dollar per cord, and all the top part thrown in 



