74 ON RECLAIMED MEADOWS. 



the outlay. The committee are of opinion that Mr. Locke is 

 entitled to the second premium, (of fifteen dollars.) 



R. A. M ERR I AM. 



\VM. OS BORN. 



L. H. DOLE. 

 November 15, 1S50. 



JOHN PORTER'S STATEMENT. 

 My meadow, which you viewed in July last,, was surveyed 

 Sept. 30, 1850, and contains two acres and ninety-five poles, 

 including the ditches, which occupy a fraction over thirteen 

 poles of the surface. For many years previous to my pur- 

 chase in 1832, it was annually covered with water two or three 

 feet deep from November to April, by means of a dam made at 

 the lower end of the meadow to connect with a natural ridge 

 of the adjacent upland. While the flowing was continued the 

 yearly product of hay was large, averaging more than a ton to 

 the acre, but the quality was inferior. This meadow was very 

 wet, even in August, and all the hay had to be poled out, for 

 it would not bear au ox without miring, upon any part of its 

 surface. It was also very rough, abounding in hassocks, and 

 small bushes about the size of a pipe stem, began to make their 

 appearance. The depth of the soil, or vegetable matter, was 

 from three to twelve feet to hard bottom. There were two 

 ditches three or four feet wide, one on the northern, and the 

 other on the eastern margin of the meadow, which were made 

 to answer for the division fence, and forming a juncture near 

 the dam, partially drained off the surplus water. In the sum- 

 mer of 1836 I dug two ditches three and a half feet wide by 

 two or more deep, lengthwise of the meadow, and terminating 

 in the ditch on the north end, thus dividing it into three near- 

 ly equal lots. From this time I ceased to flow it in the win- 

 ter, and it soon became much drier; the quantitj' of hay de- 

 creased more than one half, with no perceptible improvement 

 in the quality, and in one or two years the whole meadow set- 

 tled nearly two feet, apparently leaving about three inches of 

 the surface entirely detached from the vegetable deposit, or soil 



