110 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tlicm, oil another's land, or b}^ the springs and surface water 

 from the adjoining highlands ; and if the drains are deep 

 enough, and judiciously located, there are few places where 

 the lands may not comprise more than a third of an acre. A 

 land so small is no great hinderance to a man wlio meaiis to cut 

 three or four tons to an acre, upon which the hoof of his neat 

 stock should never travel. 



Statement of Austin J. Roberts. 



In the year 1856, 1 made an entry with Mr. Howland, the 

 supervisor for our society, for an improvement contemplated 

 on swamp lands ; the award of the premium to be made in 

 1860. Tlie meadows in question proposed for improvement, of 

 which there were several distinct pieces, consisted of extremely 

 low, wet bogs overflown by adjacent ponds in the winter, and at 

 all other times and seasons impassable to cattle. 



One swamp was covered densely over with bushes ; the other 

 two meadows were clear, yielding rushes and other coarse bed- 

 ding material. 



Believing it "would pay," not only in genuine satisfaction, 

 but lucratively — dollars and cents considered — to reclaim these 

 waste places, more especially as two of the swamps adjoined 

 my garden and ornamental grounds, I commenced with Portu- 

 guese laborers, hired at from four dollars to six dollars per 

 month, in the autumn of 1856, and have continued at intervals 

 the work of redemption up to the present time. The labor has 

 consisted simply in forming " terra firma" where before there 

 was none ; or, in other words, making land where tliere was 

 only soft mud. This was accomplished by carting adjacent 

 hills of gravel upon the swamps, and gradually raising the 

 surface of the low lands above high water, much in the same 

 way as wharves are built in cities. The amount of gravel 

 carried upon an acre has been about one thousand loads, after 

 which a thorough top covering (not dressing) of rich loam 

 from the forest and meadows, composted with horse manure, 

 was applied. The result is " big returns " in tiie shape of 

 heavy semi-annual dividends of grass. The whole expense of 

 the improvement is slightly under one hundred dollars per 

 acre ; still, it j)ays well ; tlie average value of hay cut being 

 forty dollars to the acre, or three tons, at about tliirteen dollars 

 per ton. 



