54 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Grass seed $:2 52 



Cutting aud making at $2.50 per ton, . 1 1 il5 



Xet income of the land, .... $54 19 



Daxteiis, Scptemb« 2S, 1S5S. 



- Stephen Blanei/'s Statement. 



I present for inspection and premium, (if thouglit worthy of 

 it,) a piece of reclaimed s\ramp, containing one and a half 

 acres. It is situated in Salem, near the Sheep Pasture, (so 

 called.) About six rears since, it was a coarse, rough, uupro- 

 ducuve swamp, of alders, blueberries, and other bushes, with 

 more hassocks and holes than could well be counted, and* a 

 sufficiencT of water to render it impassable for man or beast. 

 These bushes were cut and cleared, and the surface left naked, 

 and as unsightly and forbidding as possible. 



Early in September, 1S52, 1 cut a two-foot ditch tlirough the 

 centre, to let off the surplus water. I then carried on gravel 

 and loam, from the shores adjoining, about two hundred cart 

 loads, and filled the holes and cavities, so as to make the 

 surface as even as I could. I applied about twelve cords of 

 compost^ made of glue grounds and meadow muck, about equal 

 quaniities of each : spreading it uniformly over the surface. I 

 employed M. H. Davis, two days, with his team of three cattle. 

 and inverted the sod to the depth of ten inches, and afterwards 

 I picked out the stumps and roots, and smoothed the surface. 

 Eight cords of compost, collected from the refuse about my 

 wool and morocco factories, were then applied and mingled 

 with the soil, by the use of the harrow. Mr. Davis then sowed 

 it down to grass, using two bushels of redtop, and three pecks 

 of herds-grass seed. A brush was used to smooth the surface, 

 it being too soft to support the roUer. The work was thor- 

 oughly and neatly done, and thus far, completed in September 

 last year. The seed sown came up thick and promised well. 



In July the present year, I mowed and sold the first crop, 

 being 4 tons 1,170 lbs., on the ground, at eighteen dollars per 

 ton. Subsequently. I mowed and gathered to my barn, a 

 second crop of two and a half tons, of first quality fodder. 



