42 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



nates, rarely survives the first summer's sun, and then gives 

 place to a luxuriant growth of sorrel, and the soil is as poor as 

 when I commenced. Thus I consider my experiment with the 

 sandy hill a failure, so far as the permanent improvement of 

 the soil is concerned ; and I must look to others for instruction 

 in the matter, for with me it has been, in more than one sense 

 of the word, an up-hill business. 



In the use of the low ground, as I have said, the result has 

 been satisfactory. I have made it a point to have the land, 

 before ploughing, thoroughly drained, making deep drains to 

 cut off the springs, and covering them when the quantity of 

 water was not too great to be carried off readily. These cov- 

 ered drains are made by laying two large rails at the bottom 

 of the ditch, one on each side, far enough apart to allow a water- 

 course between them, and and a third in the middle, resting 

 upon the two and keeping them apart. Another may be laid 

 on each side, and the whole covered first with a little straw ; 

 .then sods inverted, and the upper part filled with finer earth. 

 In this way I have made within a few years about seventy-five 

 rods, which do well. After these, deep main drains were prop- 

 erly made, all unnecessary ditches were filled, and then the 

 land was ready for the plough. I ploughed, for com, turf land, 

 in autumn, about seven inches deep, and prepared at the same 

 ■time, if possible, a pile of compost manure of thirty-one 

 horse-cart loads for each acre, to be applied in the spring and 

 harrowed in. The ground being planted with corn and kept 

 even, I have succeeded in getting good grass by sowing seed 

 among the corn and working it in in August. Sometimes I 

 give the land a second ploughing and seed down with oats. 

 , In this way I have been over the sixteen acres, draining, 

 planting, and seeding. The last piece of rough, low, unproduc- 

 tive ground has been made smooth, and I trust will prove to be 

 productive by a different process, a plan recommended by Mr. 

 Buckminstcr, of the Massachusetts Ploughman — that of seeding 

 immediately upon the inverted sod, which cannot be too highly 

 recommended for low ground. As your committee saw this 

 ground before and after the operation, it is needless for me to 

 enlarge upon it. 



While I have been engaged in carrying out thc3C principal 



