MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 113 



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Reclaimed Meadows. , 



Joel Wheeler^ s Statement. 



The piece of meadow land to which I ask attention, con- 

 tains about five acres. The soil is of a light peaty mud, vary- 

 ing from four to twenty feet deep. I commenced working 

 upon it in the spring of 1848. It was then covered with 

 water, alders, dogwood and brush, and consequently was of 

 little or no value. My first operation was to ditch it, dig it 

 over with a bog hoe and burn it. The following winter, I 

 spread on sixty loads of sand per acre. In June, 1849, 1 sowed 

 it with oats and grass seed, without any manure. I cut about 

 one ton per acre, and obtained a good crop of fall feed. In 

 1850 I cut, on the same piece, two tons of handsome hay per 

 acie, and might have cut a good crop of rowen, but preferred 

 feeding it. In the fall of 1850, I spread on about twenty loads 

 of compost manure to the acre, and this year I cut, by estima- 

 tion, two and a half tons per acre. The whole expense of 

 reclaiming and seeding down, was twenty-eight dollars per acre. 



Concord, Sept. 5, 1851. 



Daniel L. Giles's Statement. 



The bog meadow, to which I invite attention, is about two 

 and a half acres of what was, in 1848 and '49, in a wild state. 

 A growth of wood was taken from it eight or ten years ago, 

 and it was covered with stumps of maple, birch, and dogwood, 

 with some scattering stumps of pine and cedars. For many 

 years, it has been a fine harbor for minks and muskrats. 



In the winter of 1848, I dug a ditch around the meadow, 

 sixty rods long, from three and a half to five feet wide and 

 four to five feet deep, at a cost of seventy-five cents per rod. 

 The mud I carted into the barn-yard and hog-yard, with the 

 exception of ten rods which I sold for five dollars where it was 

 flung out. Mud carted and sold, worth about ^35, besides pay- 

 ing for teaming. 



In the summer of 1849, 1 mowed the bushes and brakes, and 

 began to cut around the stumps and roots. Then with a lever 

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