IMPROVING PASTURE AND WASTE LAND. 71 



with grass for permanent mowing. One acre of the above 

 was stocked with buckwheat, half-acre with turnips, the rest 

 with grass alone. The amount of grass-seed sown per acre 

 was as follows : two pecks herdsgrass, one peck northern red- 

 top, half-peck southern red top, half-peck of fowl-meadow, 

 with several barrels of chaff saved from the cattle's mangers, 

 and sweepings of the feeding floor, in addition. 



The yield of grass on this reclaimed lot, in 1876, was from 

 two to three tons per acre of the very best quality of hay. 



During the summer of 1876, twenty-two rods of under- 

 drains were constructed on this lot, and twenty-four rods of 

 ditches dug. About three acres additional have been reclaimed 

 and seeded ; a part with buckwheat, and a part with grass- 

 seed alone, using orchard-grass and Alsike clover in addition 

 to the varieties sown last year. 



Lot No. 2 is a section of two acres, adjoining the maple 

 swamp on the north, and has fifty-three rods of covered and 

 thirty-nine rods of open drains. It was cultivated two years 

 with hoed crops, and seeded with oats, and has now been in 

 mowing eighteen years, the underdrains as effectually carry- 

 ing off the water as when first constructed. 



Lot No. 3, on the east bank of the brook, was drained in 

 1855 ; eight rods of open ditches and forty-two rods of under- 

 drains were laid on one and a half acres ; the land planted 

 with potatoes, and the next year seeded to grass with millet 

 for mowing. One of these ditches only has failed, having 

 been duo; too narrow and filled with too large stones. 



Lot No. 4, a lot on the west bank of the brook, contains 

 one and a quarter acres. Iu 1859, seventy-two and a half 

 rods of underdrains and four rods of open drains were made. 

 This lot was thoroughly ploughed and planted with potatoes ; 

 the next year heavily manured and seeded to grass with 

 buckwheat. 



Large crops of grass have been cut from this lot ever since, 

 with only two or three top-dressings of manure during the 

 time, the lot receiving the wash from the upland above. A 

 number of these ditches have failed from the setting back of 

 the brook. 



Lot No. 5 contains about three-fourths of an acre on the 

 side-hill adjoining the last lot. Thirty-seven and a half rods 



