62 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



up, and it has been necessary to dig new ones. I have sup- 

 posed that rnuskrats and meadow-moles, in some cases, have 

 had something to do in filling up among the small stones on 

 meadow land, where there is a small depth of mud. On 

 higher land, the woodchucks will sometimes burrow and clog 

 up the ditch. 



I have used a large amount of stones for underdraining, 

 and, in some cases, it has been done to good advantage, as 

 the subsoil would pay for throwing out for top-dressing, and 

 the sniall stones were buried out of sight. I should, however, 

 in most cases, recommend tile for underdraining, where they 

 can be buried sufficiently deep to protect them from frost. 



I have extended these remarks far beyond what I intended 

 when I commenced, and will now close. 



Joseph How, Chairman. 



Statement of J. J. H. Gregory. 



The improved wet meadow I enter for your examination 

 is a tract of about a dozen acres, located on the Glover Farm 

 in Marblehead, and bordering on Atlantic Avenue, which 

 extends from Marblehead to Swampscott. The meadow is 

 muck, from two to six feet deep, resting on clay. Previous 

 to reclamation, the tract was of but little value for any pur- 

 pose ; it was wet, rough, and mostly covered with rushes and 

 coarse grasses. About twenty-five years ago there was an 

 attempt made to reclaim a small portion of it, but there then 

 being insufficient drainage, it was a failure. The first step 

 taken was to open a deep ditch of about eight hundred feet 

 in length, which was walled with stone its entire length, at 

 the cost, when finished, of about a dollar a linear foot. The 

 design was that this ditch should serve to drain not only the 

 meadow, but a large tract of low land in the rear of it. The 

 second step was to lay tile or hemlock boards from several 

 springs to the main ditch running through the middle of the 

 meadow. These steps having made the meadow sufficiently 

 dry, the hummocks, hillocks, and tussocks were now attacked 

 with picks and " tormented " with the harrow until the surface 

 was made comparatively smooth. In the course of the work, 



