64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the eminent teacher takes his position among the foremost 

 classes of society. Farming demands learning and talents, 

 and will reward them. They will convert it from an empirical 

 trade to a noble and dignified pursuit, and it will crown them 

 with riches and honor. Our society will have gone a great 

 way towards fulfilling the wishes of its enlightened founders 

 when it shall persuade young men to devote to agriculture 

 years of earnest and serious study — when thought shall be 

 wedded to labor — when science applied to the cultivation of 

 the soil shall redeem from unmerited contempt one of the most 

 useful of human employments. 



For the committee, 



John" M. Merrick. 



RECLAIMED MEADOWS. 



MIDDLESEX. 



Statement of Asa G. Sheldon. 



The land I offer for premium was, in 1843, a blueberry 

 swamp, with some few maples and white pines, in value not more 

 than ten dollars per acre. I first dug a ditch through the cen- 

 tre of it, about forty rods in length, which cost sixty cents per 

 rod — making twenty dollars. Then I cut off the wood and 

 brush, which barely paid for cutting. In the fall the manure 

 was taken from the slaughter yard and barn cellar, teamed to 

 a side hill near the swamp, and mixed with one load of strong 

 manure and three loads of blue, clayey gravel. This was done 

 in September. In the winter, when the swamp was frozen, this 

 was teamed on, tipped up in loads, and then covered with sand. 

 In April, IS4 1, it was all overhauled. In May I commenced 

 digging over the swamp and planting potatoes, putting a small 

 shovelful of this compost in a lull. 1 found the deptli of mud 

 to vary from eighteen inches to nine feet. Where I found the 

 mud deep and good digging, 1 dug live or six feet deep, filling 



