166 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



A somewhat extensive permanent improvement has been 

 nearly completed upon the westerly end of the land assigned 

 to the experiment station. The brook there was very winding 

 and the land near it too wet for general cultivation. The 

 brook has been straightened and deepened for some five hun- 

 dred feet in length, and the land on either side has been sloped 

 with an easy grade, the soil thus obtained being used to fill 

 the low ground and the former bed of the brook. The result 

 is the securing of two fields, one on either side of the brook, 

 of even surface and deep soil, suitable for almost any farm pur- 

 pose, where before nothing but swale grass and alder bushes 

 grew. The same method of improvement may be applied later 

 with advantage to the easterly half of the same field. 



In May, 1899, a paper on "Koad Drainage" was read before 

 the state road convention at Lancaster, N. H., and talks on 

 kindred subjects were given at other places during the year. 



C. H. Pettee, 



Meteorologist. 



