260 HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 



see. After the frost was out and the ground settled, 1 

 went to the lot, expecting it was fit to plough, but I 

 found I had built my works on the sand, and they had fallen. 

 The deep cut at the bottom was quicksand, the water had 

 washed under the banks, and when the frost came out, it caved 

 in on both sides almost the whole length, one hundred and sixty 

 rods, filling up the ditch, leaving a vast chasm ten feet wide at 

 the top, stopping the water which set back upon the land, com- 

 pletely covering forty acres, so that not a particle of it could be 

 seen. It now seemed as if the work must forever stop. As I 

 stood and looked at the ruins, I thought the matter over, 

 whether it was best to turn the lake as it then was into a fish- 

 pond and give up draining, or say as did David Crockett, 

 " never give up but go ahead." I finally decided upon the 

 latter, and again went to work. 



This time I did it thoroughly, carted off the dirt, and spread 

 it upon the land. About the 1st of June, 1828, the land 

 became dry and v/e commenced ploughing. This required 

 three men and four pair of cattle, with a large plough which 

 cut fourteen inches in depth. When digging the drain, we 

 found large trees two to three feet in diameter under ground, 

 which were burnt to charcoal on the outside. In ploughing, 

 these were a great hindrance. We ploughed about one half 

 acre per day, getting out all the logs and roots. This team I 

 kept on the land constantly in fair weather for four months. 

 About one hundred days, in this time, they ploughed, dragged 

 and cleared off the logs and roots from the remaining ten acres. 

 Thirty acres I ploughed the next season. I then sowed ten 

 acres with rye, and two with wheat. Both grew well, and 

 there was as large a growth of straw as I have ever seen on any 

 land, but both blasted and were nearly worthless. I have since 

 that time tried rye, wheat and oats, in small lots, but am satis- 

 fied they cannot be grown on this land. I next sowed buck- 

 wheat with good success, and followed with this eight years in 

 succession. At this time, 1 found the top of the land, the 

 depth ploughed, had greatly changed. 



The peat was from two to eight feet in depth, and of a red- 

 dish color before exposed to the air ; it had now, to the depth 

 ploughed, become black and very fine. 



