MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 115 



ploughed and harrowed in the gravel with the mud, as nice as 

 a pin ; planted with potatoes again, thinking the gravel would 

 prevent the rot, but I only saved about one hundred bushels to 

 the acre ; the rest went to manure the ground. In the fall, 

 seeded down one acre with herds grass and red-top, and the 

 year following, 1850, the first crop cut from that acre was about 

 two tons. The remainder was seeded to grass in June of that 

 year, and this season I cut at the rate of three tons to the acre 

 of the best of hay. 



I approve of this method of reclaiming wet meadows. Do 

 well what you do, kill all the wild grass first, and you need 

 not fear afterwards. This meadow was nearly worthless, 

 except for peat and mud ; now I consider it worth at least $200 

 per acre. The whole cost paid out for reclaiming was but 

 $9 75, besides my own help. 



Concord, Sept. 5, 1851. 



Apple Orchards. 



William Wyman^s Statement 



My farm contains over forty acres and was purchased in 

 1840. I gave for the lot of land, which ./as covered with 

 wood at the time, $7000, and sold the wood by auction, in 

 November following, for over 3000. Late in the fall, I ploughed 

 a furrow among the stumps and brush, and sowed my apple 

 pomace. The second year, in the spring, I covered my young 

 trees all with manure, which gave them a fine start; the third 

 spring I set them out in my nursery, and in the fall most of 

 them were budded. About the sixth year from the planting of 

 the seed, the trees were set out. They are set in rows ten feet 

 apart, one apple tree and then two peach trees. The rows are 

 about thirty feet apart. Where my cherry trees are set, I have 

 one peach tree between the cherry trees, ten feet apart. I have 

 cultivated most of my rows every year. My orchard contains 

 about 3000 trees, including apple, cherry, peach and plum, and 

 covers about twenty-five acres of land. Many of the trees are 

 in a bearing state. 



Lowell. Sept. 3, 1851 



