106 MASSACHUSETTS ACxRICULTURE. 



bank fronting Eel Creek, and extending across the railroad, 

 then turning and running southerly on a line with the harbor. 

 This land contains about two and a half acres which was 

 swamp, and about two acres more which I have under- 

 drained, and which was always wet until June, giving no signs 

 of a grass crop until late in that month. It is all upon a 

 declivity, out of which above, and down the descent, springs 

 burst out. It was covered with dock, skunks cabbage, alder, 

 and swamp bushes, and was unsafe for cattle. In August, 

 185G, I cut drains through the black mud at intervals not 

 more than thirty to forty feet apart down the descent, occa- 

 sionally making a short branch to lead in a spring. In a few 

 weeks the mud was sufficiently dried to allow me to dig deeper 

 into a soil which varied from clay to gravel and fine quick- 

 sand. I dug another -drain the whole length under the 

 bank, "affording sufficient slope to carry off the water both 

 ways. I laid the bottom with strips of old boards, and placed 

 broken rails parallel with each other itpon the boards — upon 

 these I laid the larger stones, filled in with small stones to 

 within eight inches of the surface — covered with sea-weed from 

 the shore, and finished with sand and gravel. This land was 

 BO soft that I did not venture, wnth the knowledge I tlien had, 

 to use tiles, and I still doubt, whether they will serve upon 

 land so soft as this then was. I covered the whole land during 

 the winter from a sand bank close by, from four to eight 

 inches in depth. In one place, however, I was obliged to 

 " drown out" the spring by the use of sand. I could not open 

 the mud long enough to make a drain. It would be impos- 

 sible for me to state with accuracy the cost of this improve- 

 ment. Done at odd hours, mostly in the fall and winter, no 

 account could be kept of it. The time lost in gathering stones, 

 and placing them in the drain, far exceeds the cost of tiles 

 laid, and was no small item. Some of these stones, however, 

 were raked from stubble land, or lay in heaps where they were 

 a nuisance and must be removed. This, however, I can say ; 

 the land is clear gain, as it was worthless before, and the labor 

 was performed wlicn, with hired men, little else could be 

 done on cleared land. I find I can do a great deal of drain- 

 ing in the winter, much more than one would at first suppose. 

 Such land is generally open, and free from frost, except upon 



