104 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



IMPROVEMENT OF MEADOW AND SWAMP 



LAND. 



MIDDLESEX SOUTH. 



Statement of Isaac V. Adams. 



I offer for premium one and one-fourth acres of improved 

 meadow land, situated in the east part of the town of Hopkin- 

 ton, in Little Cedar Swamp, a tract of land upon which great 

 improvements have been made during the past five years, an 

 account of which may be found in the previous reports of this 

 society. 



The lot is twenty rods long, and averages ten rods in width. 

 It borders upon the shore or upland upon one side, and is 

 bounded upon the main channel or outlet of the swamp upon 

 one end. It is a part of a plot of ground purchased in 1861 at 

 $16 per acre. Previous to the commencement of these im- 

 provements I had never obtained enough from it to pay for the 

 labor bestowed upon it. In the summer of 1865 it took fire 

 from a neighbor's lot, and a part of it was pretty well burned 

 over. I immediately commenced operations upon it, by deepen- 

 ing and straightening an old ditch which passed through it at a 

 distance of three rods from the shore, emptying into the main 

 channel. I accepted an offer from a neighbor to cut a ditch 

 across the further side, in consideration of which he was to 

 receive the mud flung out. This ditch, like all my cross-ditches, 

 is three feet wide at the top, two feet at the bottom, and about 

 three feet deep. Having completed the arrangements for thor- 

 ough drainage, I levelled up the surface beside the ditch which 

 had been straiglitened and put the piece under the plough. The 

 part which had been burned ploughed easily with a light yoke 

 of cattle without a driver, but the remainder was very tough, 

 and required two yoke of oxen and two men. After suffering 

 it to dry for a few days, I set it on fire, and obtained quite a 

 good burn, except upon a small portion adjoining the upland, 

 where sand had been washed in by the summer rains and min- 

 gled with the peat. Where this has occurred it is impossible to 

 get a good burn. I now sowed all, except the portion last 

 spoken of, with winter rye. 



