ON RECLAIMING WET LANDS. 87 



By careful examination, I find the whole cost of reclam ation did 

 not exceed sixty dollars per acre. 



The corn on the one and a quarter acres is estimated at sixty 

 bushels per acre, and of the potatoes already dug 20 hills made a 

 bushel. This lot was managed much in the same manner as the 

 one described. It has been planted three years ; the smallest crop 

 the present year. Sandy loam was put on the part planted with 

 corn. 



Thus it will be seen tkat a large crop of hay has been raised six 

 years in succession, without any additional top-dressing of any kind, 

 and only four cords of manure, which was put on at the commence- 

 ment. I consider the loam and gravel of more value for such grass 

 land, than manure, if applied as a top-dressing. 



RICHARD DODGE. 



Wenham, Sept 27, 1848. 



R. A. MERRIAM'S STATEMENT. 



To the Committee on Reclaimed Meadow and Swamp Lands: 

 Gentlemen, — I offer for your inspection and for premium, if you 

 should think worthy of one, about four acres of partly meadow and 

 partly swamp land, which in the course of six years I have been de- 

 voting some attention to, for the purpose of reclaiming it from a nearly 

 useless state. I began about six years ago, (after my neighbor be- 

 low me had opened a thorough water-course) by ditching and covering 

 the intermediate spaces with the mud that was thrown out. These- 

 ditches were cut from the main one to the shore, about thirty feet 

 apart, wide and deep enough to afford a perfect covering for the spa- 

 ces between. After levelling and smoothing, I sowed hayseed, &c., 

 raked it in, about a peck of herds grass and one bushel of red top 

 seed to the acre. Without any other preparation, I cut from one 

 to two tons of English grass to the acre. The quantity of grass 

 lessened in the course of a year or two and I then spread on about 

 five cords of compost manure to the acre in the fall, which increased 

 the amount of hay to between two and three tons to the acre, and 

 most of the meadow that I have worked upon is now in this state. 

 But the piece to which I have invited your attention and which I 



