74 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



HOUSATONIC. 



Report of the Committee. 



E. F. Ensign, Ralph Taylor, and J. R. Lawton, a committee 

 appointed by the Housatonic Agricultural Society, in 1851, to 

 view and report upon the " greatest improvement made upon 

 wet,- swampy, and unproductive lands, by bringing the same 

 into a state of cultivation and productiveness with the least 

 expense," report : — 



That five pieces of " wet and swampy " land were entered 

 for premium in 1851, and were viewed by your committee in 

 the fall of that year, and have been reviewed this year. We 

 premise by saying that none of the applicants have strictly 

 complied with the regulations of the society in keeping and 

 producing to the committee "a correct account of the expense 

 of reclaiming, a description of the manner of improving," <fcc. 

 Your committee believe the intention of the society to be, that 

 an account should be opened with each lot of land to be im- 

 proved, and that all expenses incurred, and the value of all 

 products received, during the three years' experiment, should 

 be accurately kept and exhibited to the committee, to enable 

 them to judge and report to the sociely the value of the im- 

 provement. Lands may cost, in the improvement, more than 

 their value after the labor is performed. The object of the 

 society in offering premiums is, not to encourage a mere taste- 

 ful expenditure of money to beautify the farm, but the far 

 higher one of making two spires of grass grow where but 

 one or none grew before — of removing the unsightly blotches 

 from our glorious landscapes — of encouraging industry and en- 

 terprise — and of proving to our young farmers that "virgin 

 lands," which have not been worn out by unskilful cultivation, 

 may be found without seeking the prairies of the west. In our 

 opinion, there arc many acres on nearly every farm in Berkshire, 

 now valueless by being drowned and covered with bogs, which 

 might, with reasonable expense, be made more productive than 

 the most cherished acres now in cultivation. To enable any 

 committee to judge witli entire satisfaction, and to recommend 

 the best mode of reclaiming lands, such an account as they 



