CORRESPONDENCE. 219' 



your town, Framingham, have within a few years 

 made great improvements on their low lands and peat- 

 swamps. 



With us such lands have been generally neglected, 

 and they yield no profit whatever, though we must 

 fence them and pay the taxes. I should like to know 

 your modes of improving such lands ; to learn what is 

 the best time of year to engage in the business, and 

 what has been your success. 



Yours, A Subscriber. 



Lunenburg, Au%. 17, 1839. 



There are various modes of reclaiming these low 

 lands and peat-swamps, and each one may be best in a 

 difterently situated swamp. The first act in the 

 drama is to drain off the surplus water. Nothing can 

 be done towards raising English hay in a wet meadow. 

 This is a good season of the year for draining. One 

 central ditch is often sufficient to carry off" all the 

 water ; and, when this is the case, it is mischievous to 

 multiply ditches, for they are in the way of the plough. 

 Don't smile, friend, at the idea of ploughing your 

 swamp, which now your dog cannot cross with safety ! 

 We plough our meadows as soon as we get them 

 .well filled with English grass-roots. 



But some meadows are kept wet by means of springs 

 that issue from the banks on the their borders. When 

 these springs abound, it is good to run side ditches 

 along at their base, and thus cut them off. • These 

 ditches should be cut as nearly parallel as possible with 

 the main central ditch, or with each other, in order to 

 cut the meadow into convenient lands for ploughing. 



When the meadow is drained, the next inquiry is, 

 how can it best be brought into English mowing ? If 

 the surface consists of roots, peat, and an abundance of 

 combustible matter,, it is best to subdue by paring and 

 burning. This paring is done with a bog-hoe, when the 

 ground will not bear a team ; and it often happens that, 



