108 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



impenetrable except by an occasional cow patli. I deepened 

 the outlet two feet through a bank of gravel and pan, about 

 two hundred feet in length — dug a new ditch parallel with or 

 straightening the old brook, and leaving its former bed on dry- 

 land. This ditch is almost three hundred feet long, and after 

 digging two central ditches about one hundred and ninety feet 

 each, the land was left for another year. In August, 1859) 

 dug ditches around the whole of three sides and commenced on 

 the southerly end of the swamp by paring the whole surface 

 with bog-hoes. The roots, though the stumps are from one to 

 three inches in diameter, seldom sink more tlian three inches ; 

 and the bog-hoc, with a narrow axe on one side and the adze at 

 the other, takes up sods two to three feet square. These were 

 carted to a knoll of about one-quarter of an acre until it was 

 covered, and the balance was disposed of during the winter, as 

 follows : We dug pits occasionally, the whole depth of the peat, 

 from nine to twelve feet, and into these the roots and sods are 

 dumped — as the cart goes to the swamp in the morning and at 

 noon, it carries a load of manure, returning with a load of peat 

 at noon and night. The manure is composted with the heaps of 

 peat, and when the whole meadow has been covered with gravel, 

 the compost heaps are all ready in the spring to spread upon 

 the meadow. In this manner I made an acre and a half of 

 meadow last winter. On about six rods square of the meadow, 

 the sods which were free from roots were turned, and tlie sur- 

 face shingled with them, and the root-sods removed. All the 

 ditches being made in solid peat, were flared some eight feet 

 from the upper edge of each bank, by removing the peat eight 

 feet in width and almost three feet deep, and dumping gravel 

 into the angles on either side, mixed with a surface of soil or 

 peat, thus making a natural slope with no perpendicular sides 

 for sun and frost to act upon. The north or cast side of all 

 open ditches should be well flared, for in our climate the sun 

 thaws almost every day the side of tlic ditch which is exposed 

 to its rays. 



In April all the manure being upon the ground, I laid down 

 an acre with herds-grass, Timothy, clover, orchard grass and 

 oats, two bushels and a half of the latter, and in July mowed 

 the oats. They were drawn to a field near the barn, and 

 stacked. Here they remained until the first week in October, 



