HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 263 



seed, consisting of red clover, white clover, herds grass and 

 fowl meadow, and raked it in. 



I also tried bogging it deeper, turning the surface over and 

 cultivating the bogs ; and although this leaves a richer top, yet 

 it takes a long time to subdue the weeds and wild grass in this 

 way ; and I find the better way, after having ditched around a 

 piece, to cut and turn over the surface late in the fall, and let it 

 lie until the next August or September ; then, if possible, burn 

 it as it lies, and sow your grass seed and rake it smooth ; then, 

 in the spring following, give it a slight dressing of manure, 

 accompanied with a good portion of lime (slack) and plaster of 

 Paris. 



In this way I have brought this nearly useless land to bear 

 two large crops of the best quality of English hay a year, for 

 the two years that I have had it under trial. 



I have given a very brief and imperfect sketch of my opera- 

 tion. And this I do, that the very large number of men of 

 small means like myself, who own such land, may be induced 

 to commence reclaiming without delay. 



Belchertown, Oct. 18, 1851. 



Ploughing. 



If a regular turning over the soil, from a uniform depth of 

 four, five or six inches, be the best thing that can be done pre- 

 paratory to putting in the seed, then are our improved ploughs 

 as nearly perfect as anything human can be ; and certainly no 

 one, who has witnessed the exhibition of this day, will doubt 

 that our accomplished plough-men have approached perfection 

 in their use. 



Some of your committee, however, are disposed to question 

 whether a uniform inversion of the soil from four to six 

 inches in depth, is the preparation best adapted to promote fer- 

 tility. We suppose it possible, that an operation very difierent 

 from that of merely inverting the top soil, may yet be found 

 preferable ; and if so, then a mode of accomplishing it, differ- 

 ent from any yet practised in this country, may be found ad- 

 vantageous. 



