HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 237 



The average number of hens, kept throughout the year, was 

 140, fed principally on wheat screenings, corn meal and corn 

 crack, of which I fed them as much as they would eat, both 

 summer and winter ; also keeping them well supplied with 

 fresh water, old plastering, lime, ashes, gravel, &c., and fresh 

 meat, in the shape of old sheep, during the winter. The ave- 

 rage number of eggs layed by each hen, is 120. Number of 

 eggs layed in each month through the year, is as follows : 

 November, 47 dozen ; December, 73 ; January, 84 ; February, 

 122; March, 184; April, 181; May, 177; June, 161; July, 

 157 ; August, 137 ; September, 77. Thus showing that my 

 hens lay the year round, besides doing something towards sup- 

 porting themselves. 



MiDDLEFIELD. 



Subsequently to the foregoing proceedings, the executive 

 committee awarded a premium of ^10, to T. P. Huntington, of 

 Hadley, for the best conducted experiment in reclaiming wet 

 meadow, or swamp lands by draining or otherwise, — and a like 

 premium to George Dickinson, of Hadley, for the best con- 

 ducted experiment in the cultivation of wheat. 



T. P. Huntingtmi's Statement. 



I present the result of two experiments made by me within 

 five years past in the way of draining. 



The first was made upon a piece of ground containing two 

 acres, lying east of my house and west of a sandy hill. This 

 lot is thirty rods long from north to south. Immediately at the 

 foot of the hill there was, in 1845, a strip of ground, perhaps 

 two rods in width, too wet for cultivation, and too soft to bear 

 a team. This bog had upon each side of it a ditch. Two 

 ditches running- across the lot of two acres, (one about four 

 rods from the north end and the other near the middle,) empty- 

 ing into a main ditch near the west side, besides one at the 

 south end, which passed into a lot adjoining, served as outlets. 



In August, 1845, I sank the ditch nearest the hill deep 



