RECLAIMED MEADOWS. 47 



quently it must be done, if effectually done, at mucli less expense 

 than is ordinarily applied. The great difficulty attendant upon 

 covered drains is the expense of their construction, unless 

 there may be on the farm, at times, a surplus of hands, and the 

 work can be done at odd jobs when other work is not pressing. 

 Such, we understand, were the circumstances under which much 

 of the labor was done, in the experiment on the town farm in 

 Danvers. 



The committee recommend the publication of the several 

 statements as presented. 



J. W. Proctor, Chairman. 



Adirio Page's Statement. 



I offer for examination, and premium, (if thought worthy of 

 it,) a piece of reclaimed meadow and run-land, situate on the 

 town farm in Danvers, near the avenue that leads to the house, 

 and easterly of the same. This parcel of land, previously to 

 1850, was usually known by the name of the "pond-hole." 

 The peat mud was several feet deep over the greater part of 

 it — in some parts the mire was ten or twelve feet. It was sup- 

 plied with water by springs oozing from the surrounding high- 

 lands, and was often impassable, by man or beast, and so full of 

 water as to have an offensive and forbidding aspect. 



In the season of 1850, it yielded only about half a ton of the 

 coarsest kind of meadow grass and rushes. In the autumn of 

 that year, ditches were cut around the borders, so as to receive 

 the water that came in from the hills ; and cross-ditches were 

 cut to an old ditch in the centre, that was cleaned out, so as to 

 let off the water at the southerly end. These ditches were cut 

 across about three rods apart, thereby forming the land into 

 beds of that width, and were covered with stones and turfs, so 

 far as convenient to do so. "Where the land would support a 

 team, the plough was used to turn the sod ; in other parts, it 

 was broken and turned with spades and hoes. Nearly all the 

 surface was covered with gravel from the adjoining knolls, from 

 one to twelve inches deep, according to position — making an 

 average coating of material from the upland of five or six 

 inches in depth. This was intermingled with the soil of the 

 meadow, as thoroughly as it could conveniently be done. 



