290 NORFOLK SOCIETY. 



favorable to a good result. A vast amount of patient, perse- 

 vering, and- skilful labor has been expended in both, and the 

 most unsightly and noisome bogs have been reduced to surfaces 

 perfectly smooth, verdant and healthful. Means are employed 

 for thorough draining of the lands, upon which the success of 

 these, and of all similar experiments, mainly depends. Large 

 quantities of foreign substances, (consisting of loam, gravel, 

 hard coal ashes, (fcc.,) have been superadded to the natural soil, 

 and the whole covered with compost manure. The land of 

 Mr. Tubbs has been recently reclaimed ; the grass seed was 

 sowed in September, and promises a luxuriant growth. That 

 of Mr. Salisbury has been longer in a course of improvement ; 

 is chiefly covered with a good sward, and, with suitable care, 

 will be very productive for many years. The immediate ex- 

 pense incurred by Mr. Tubbs^ is found to be large, and will 

 probably deter others with less enterprise, or small means, from 

 a similar undertaking. Whether such expense may not be fully 

 justified and recompensed, it is not possible to determine. Your 

 committee are inclined to believe that it will. In the other 

 case, that of Mr. Salisbury, the labor has been chiefly perform- 

 ed by himself, during the leisure hours of several years past, 

 in the most economical manner, and under many discourage- 

 ments. It should be remarked, too, that at the time of com- 

 mencing the improvement, he had arrived at a "good old age." 

 What he has accomplished almost entirely alone, and by dint 

 of diligent, persevering hard labor, ought certainly to admonish 

 and encourage many younger farmers in the county, who have 

 similar waste lands to be reclaimed. 



In the present state of both these pieces of land, your com- 

 mittee would only recommend the application of more coarse 

 sand, or gravel, as a means of rendering them permanently pro- 

 ductive of sweet aud nutritious grass, though it may not en- 

 large the immediate crop. And this use of sand, or gravel, in 

 preference to loam, we would suggest as a general rule in the 

 reclaiming of wet and cold lands. 



Your committee regard the reclaiming of meadow and swamp 

 lands as among the most important, available, and productive 

 improvements in the agriculture of New England. The sub- 



