RECLAIMING LAJSTD. 149 



I speak to chop up this gi'ound with a broad axe or cut it 

 with a hoe that was made for that special purpose, turn it 

 with a fork, and leave it until it froze in the winter, when I 

 applied my sand. 



It is very important to get a uniform grade, so that there 

 will be no depressions upon such land in which stagnant 

 water can stand. If that is allowed, it will always result 

 in failure and disappointment. The richer grasses will die 

 out and give place to the coarser. Now, I will in just a 

 word say that that land had yielded me, by estimation, two 

 tons and a half of hay at the first crop. I do not mean the 

 first crop after seeding, but after the first year. I seeded in 

 the spring, as Captain Moore has advised. The crop that 

 first year was not half a crop, but I have cut for my first 

 crop two and a half tons, by estimation, and a ton and a 

 half at the second crop, making an annual yield of four tons 

 of hay. I have not applied anything to that land since — 

 and some of it has been in grass five or six years — but an 

 annual application of five hundred pounds to the acre of 

 muriate of potash and fine-ground bone, and you all know 

 about what that has cost me. There are thousands and 

 thousands of acres in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 

 that could be reclaimed and brought into a state of fertility 

 that would yield four tons of hay to the acre per annum with 

 an annual expense for fertilizers of not exceeding three dol- 

 lars per ton, or twelve dollars to the acre. Is there any 

 crop the cultivation of w^hich holds out a greater inducement 

 to the farmers of INIassachusetts than this ? You have not 

 to wait twenty, thirty, or forty 3^ears for your crop to ma- 

 ture. You know the value of hay, and you know that 3^ou 

 have a ready market as soon as your crop is produced. 

 That is proved by the enormous amount of hay that is 

 annually brought into our State. It seems to me that there 

 is a brighter prospect for the farmer if he will cultivate more 

 of the grasses and produce a larger amount of English hay 

 upon the waste bogs and low lands of the Commonwealth. 



The Chairman. We must now take up- another item on 

 the programme. We may resume the consideration of this 

 subject later, for it is a very important one. 



