246 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Statement of Augustus H. Leland. 



The piece of cranberry meadow to which I invite your atten- 

 tion, contains about three-quarters of an acre. The mud and 

 peat is deep, varying from three to seven feet. The soil is 

 black mud which lies on the peat, and the peat rests on a light 

 layer of sand, and under that, as near as I could ascertain at 

 one point, a clayey gravel. Tliere were four or more kinds of 

 grass upon this piece which had been cut off yearly ever since 

 my remembrance. 



The first of these grasses is called carex jiliformis, a kind of 

 sedge grass, which passes by the name of water-grass — grew 

 upon the greater portion of this piece. Another kind is the 

 carex stricta, a kind of sedge grass, called hassock-grass ; and 

 also, the narrow-leaved sword-grass. The third kind, carex 

 laciistris, a kind of sedge grass, with broad leaf, and is called 

 broad-leaved sword-grass. The fourth kind is scirpus eriopho- 

 rum, the true name being wool-grass, called the broad-leaved 

 sword-grass and also broad-grass. These grasses I shall al- 

 lude to in my experience which will be annexed to this state- 

 ment. 



In the autumn of the year 1838, I think, with a cast-iron 

 shovel ground sharp and put in good cutting order, I removed 

 squares or sods of the turf from the ground, one side of these 

 squares nearly corresponding in length to the width of the 

 shovel, the depth of the hole being from four to five inches. I 

 then, from beds of vines, cut sods of vines corresponding in size 

 and in depth to that which I had removed, which I placed in 

 the holes already made, and with the feet trod or pressed them 

 firmly into the hole, that they might not be disturbed by the 

 action of the ice or water, during the winter or spring. The 

 distance of these sods, or hills, one from another, was from 

 three and a half to four feet. As some of these vines which I 

 transplanted had grown from fifteen to eighteen inches in length 

 and lay nearly level with the ground, care was taken to raise 

 the vines, and place the shovel under so as not to cut off the 

 vines and also to get a sod of the proper size, otherwise the 



