RECLAIMED MEADOWS. 67 



Result : — 



Present yaliie of the land, $50 per acre, . . . $150 00 



Expenses : — 



First cost, at $5 per acre, . . . $15 00 



Clearing brush and stumps, . . . 20 00 



Ploughing, 30 00 



$G5 00 



Net profit, $85 00 



Hadley, Mass. 



HAMPDEN. 

 Statement oj S. F. Merrick, Jr. 



The meadow oflfered for your inspection is a low, irregular 

 swale of eight acres — about one-half of the work is completed. 



We commenced, August 11, 1851, by digging a main drain in 

 the centre, six feet wide, eighteen inches at the lower end, and 

 gradually increasing to the depth of between four and five feet. 

 The muck varied from eighteen inches to four feet; care was 

 taken first to bog the sides of the ditch, as it makes it easier 

 to remove the bogs and earth. The bogs and muck were 

 thrown on one side ; the gravel opposite. The banks were cut 

 almost perpendicular, to increase the quantity of gravel and to 

 secure the greater durability of the drain. The next object 

 was to drain off the water that came in from the side ; although 

 there is considerable fall, so great was the quantity, that it 

 destroyed nearly all vegetation except moss ; and there was 

 plenty of that, and now and then a patch of cranberries. Near 

 the lower end of the main drain we commenced an under-drain 

 (digging it as narrow as could be conveniently worked) running 

 at right angles with the main drain directly to the upland, 

 quite into the hard and solid ground. Experience has taught 

 that the nearer the upland (within certain limits) the nearer 

 will the water be to the surface, and the less hard pan to pene- 

 trate. This ditch was dug the same depth with the main drain, 

 and increasing, as we neared the upland, to the depth of five or 

 six feet; we intended to go down to quicksand the whole length 



