22 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



In our old farming county, where all the land is " occupied," 

 there are 220,000 acres " improved " and 128,000 acres unim- 

 proved. Suppose one-half of this unimproved land to be unfit 

 for anything but wood, we still have enough left to make 1,000 

 additional farms of 56 acres each. 



A large part of this land embraces swamps and pond-holes, 

 surrounded by light soils. The drainage of the former and the 

 exchange of a part of their contents, with the arid uplands 

 about them, would yield some of the best soils in the county. 

 This subject is much talked about, I know, and not a little has 

 been done, but the thing has hardly begun in earnest. 



To see what other people do, take the case of Harlem Lake 

 in Holland, which lake was thirty-three miles in circumference. 

 Some sixteen years ago the government commenced pumping it 

 out by steam-power. At the end of four years the work was 

 done, and the State had gained 44,500 acres of rich land at a 

 cost of 180.69 per acre. This tract is now divided into farms 

 of 49|- acres each, and it is estimated in time to support 

 70,000 people, or twice the population of Lowell. Such an 

 undertaking as this cannot be expected in our region, but the 

 case is interesting as showing whatsis thought profitable by the 

 sluggish, money-loving Dutchman. In our county, however, 

 are many small waste tracts, amounting to thousands of acres, 

 which would pay for under-draining, even at the cost per acre 

 of pumping out Harlem Lake. 



Then these swamps and low places are great reservoirs of 

 manure. For 4,500 years the humus of the uplands has been 

 finding its way to the lower levels, leaving the soil impoverished. 

 It is the part of agriculture to restore the loss. Dr. Dana has 

 demonstrated this in his profound and excellent work, the 

 " Muck Manual," a popularized edition of which should be in 

 the hands of every farmer and gardener, and should be distri- 

 buted by our society in place of many of its smaller cash pre- 

 miums and gratuities. He there shows us that a cord, of peat, 

 muck, or of pond mud, mixed with one-third of a bushel of salt 

 and one-third of a cask of lime, make a compost as valuable as 

 a cord of stable manure, and at one-tliird of the cost. He adds 

 these words, which, coming from so high an authority, should 

 be emblazoned on the walls of our hall : — " Nature never 



