186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



claimed and fertilized by special or concentrated agents, easy 

 and convenient to handle. I shall not venture upon the ex- 

 pression of opinions at present regarding the most effective and 

 cheapest agents, as these points are not satisfactorily settled. 

 After a few more seasons have passed, I shall have results which 

 will enable me to form a more exact and reliable judgment in 

 regard to the matter. The great value of our lowlands in 

 Massachusetts, is as yet imperfectly understood, although atten- 

 tion has been called to them persistently through books and the 

 agricultural press. Farmers, as a general rule, fear to have any- 

 thing to do with the soft peat bogs so common throughout the 

 State. Their experience in miring oxen and horses in attempts 

 to plough or haul on manure is not favorable to the prose- 

 cution of the work of renovation. When it is known that the 

 spade will do the work of the plough and that fertilizers of great 

 efficiency can be carried in a basket upon the shoulder, a little 

 more courage may possibly be infused into the owners of such 

 lands, and they may seek to draw from them their hidden 

 wealth by the work of reclamation. It must, however, be dis- 

 tinctly understood, that all meadows are not of a character to 

 pay for any labor that may be bestowed upon them. It is impor- 

 tant that every farmer should carefully examine his low grounds 

 before commencing improvements, that he may not subject 

 himself to disappointment and loss. It is certainly difficult to 

 clearly describe a meadow which will not, after working, bear 

 good crops of sweet grasses, but I am confident I could point 

 out such, if allowed five minutes' work upon it with a spade. 

 A piece of low land deficient in peat, with a superficial clayey 

 covering, overrun with moss or short, matted grass, will not pay 

 for the labor of renovation ; neither will a meadow pay which 

 is surrounded with a forest which places ^it in shade half the 

 hours of the day, no matter what may be the nature of the 

 deposit. A meadow permanently wet, and which cannot be 

 drained, is one upon which labor is usually wholly lost. Any 

 low land open to the air and sunlight, and which has a good 

 bottom of peat or black mould, and which is raised one foot 

 above the highest water level in the spring, can be converted 

 into a profitable field, yielding abundance of the nutritious 

 grasses. More attention should be bestowed upon such lands, 



