ON RECLAIMING WET LAlsvo. 83 



acres were not ploughed, but gravel was spread on the surface to 

 the depth of about 3 inches. My estimate of the cost of the land — 

 including its original value, cost of labor and seed — is $100 per 

 acre. I mean its original value and the cost of all improvement. 



The first year, I have usually cut about half a ton per acre. The 

 second year, I top-dress with about 10 carts full to the acre of a 

 compost, the principal ingredient of which is sand. The second 

 year, I have cut generally 21 tons per acre. I think it better to 

 top-dress, as above stated, once in two years. 



This season, the crop, as the Commiitee observed before it was 

 cut, averaged 21 tons to the acre. 



LEVERETT BRADLEY. 



Methuen, October 23d, 1848. 



STEPHEN OSBORN'S STATEMENT. 



To the Committee on Meadow and Swamp Lands : 



The lot of land to which I ask the attention of the Committee, 

 contains about five acres, of which about an acre and a quarter is" 

 meadow. In 1844 I cut oflF the bushes and small trees. This was 

 done at the time of the summer solstice, — the latter part of June, 

 from which time the roots began to decay, and with some few excep- 

 ■ tions, they never again sent forth their sprouts. I selected this pe- 

 ' riod of the year for the purpose, by the advice of an intelligent and 

 observing farmer, now removed to Worcester county, who had cut 

 bashes from his own land, at a similar time and with the same suc- 

 cess. 



In 1845, I opened the main ditch through the centre of the lot 

 and commenced ploughing. Although the season was very dry, the 

 meadow was too wet and soft to allow cattle to travel over it, and I 

 was obliged to resort to an expedient which I will attempt to de- 

 scribe with the aid of a rough sketch on paper, which I send with 

 this statement. I attached a block with a single pulley, to the trees on 

 the upland, near the edge of the meadow, through which one end of 

 a rope, communicated with alight plough, on the opposite side of the 

 low ground, while the other was attached to the draft chain of a pair 

 I of cattle who were driven on the upland, a course at right angles 



