ESSEX SOCIETY. 47 



then there will be six times the droppings from the cattle, and 

 who has not seen the good effects of it especially the liquids ? 

 It may be seen for years. 



I would earnestly recommend that farmers give gypsum a 

 fair trial, not only on one piece of land, but on different parts 

 of the farm, for although it may not benefit one piece of land, 

 it may an adjoining piece. On the whole, I know of no bet- 

 ter way than to improve the best pasture land so far as the 

 extra income will pay the expense. Those old worn-out pas- 

 tures that cannot be improved without an occasional draft on 

 the purse to pay the expense, over and above the income, may 

 as well go for wood, if wood will grow on them ; if not, let 

 them remain as they are, until they can be turned to some bet- 

 ter purposes. 



JOSEPH HOW, Chairman. 



Reclaimed Meadow Lands. s 



As early as the year 1750, the attention of some farmers in 

 this county, was turned to the improvement of their wet 

 meadow. A part of Bishop's Meadow, (so called,) in North 

 Danvers, was then ploughed and sown with grass seed, and for 

 some time yielded large crops. But the improvident waste of 

 the forests by the early settlers in the country, made it neces- 

 sary for many, at the close of the last century, to resort to 

 their peat meadows for fuel ; and this reclaimed meadow was 

 then dug out for peat. But the general use of the cooking 

 stove, and the introduction of hard coal for fuel, have lessened 

 the consumption of peat within the last thirty years, and peat 

 meadows are not now so valuable for fuel, as they were forty 

 years since. It becomes an important inquiry then, how they 

 can be best reclaimed ? 



It has been the practice of many, in former years, to cart 

 upon them large quantities of gravel. This was done many 

 years ago upon some ten or twelve acres of the farm in Dan- 

 vers, now owned by George Peabody, of Salem, and although 

 these meadows have some of them been reclaimed more than 



