Bi . ON RECLAIMING WET LANDS. 



■with that of the furrows, After the. first five or six furrows, the 

 block was placed the proper distance from the tree to make a second 

 series of furrows, the block being secured in its new position, by a 

 strong bar, set in the ground. The block was thus removed ita 

 proper distance for each successive series of furrows until the land 

 was ploughed, the plough being each time drawn by hand, back to 

 the opposite side of the meadow. I may here remark that the land 

 may be back-furrowed into beds by securing the block on the oppo- 

 site side and ploughing in that direction. During the ploughing, the 

 Wd was so wet that the water followed the plough in the furrow. 

 As to the comparative cost of this method of ploughing, the Com- 

 mittee will be able to judge from the fact, that the work was done in 

 three days and a half, with one pair of cattle, two men and a boy. 

 After ploughing I cut cross ditches on each side, communicating 

 with the main drain ; I then removed the gravel from the upland 

 in wheel-barrows to the meadow, to the depth of about three inches. 

 As the land was a soft quag-mire, boards were laid over it, on which 

 to wheel the gravel. In the following winter I dressed the land with 

 a compost of anthracite coal ashes, soil, waste lime, &c., from tan- 

 neries, the whole being well saturated with soap-boiler's spent ley. 

 In the spring of 1846 I sowed it with one and half bushels red 

 top, one and a half pecks herds grass, and two pounds clover, and 

 cut that year two tons of English hay, of good quality. In 1847, 

 the same lot of one acre and a quarter of land, yielded four tons. 



This year, 1848, the yield from the same land has been four tons 

 220 lbs. of English hay, equal to upland. 

 The expenses and yield of the reclaimed land were as follows : 



Ploughing $14 18 



Ditching and gravelhng, 18 00 



Compost, 7 50 



Grass Seed, 3 39 



CROPS. 



1846—2 tons Hay at $16 



1847—4 



1848—4^ " at 12, (sold from the field,) 



145 32 

 Deduct $4 per ton for making, 40 00 



Income for three years, $105 32 



