38 IMPROVEMENT OF WET MEADOWS. 



sufficiently attest the facility with which such im- 

 provements may be made, and the rich benefits 

 which those may expect who undertake to prosecute 

 them judiciously. The committee understood Mr. 

 Dalrymple to state that the average cost of his mea- 

 dow land, which is that spoken of in his statement, 

 including the price which he paid for it, and all the 

 expenses of cultivation for the first crop, would not 

 exceed ^25 00 per acre, and it appears, from the in- 

 teresting narrative which he has furnished, that he 

 obtained for the produce of a single acre in one year, 

 the sum of ^100 50. 



It is striking to reflect how many thousands have 

 emigrated to the wilds of the West, leaving behind 

 them New-England, with all its social advantages, 

 and thousands of prairies just like this discovered by 

 Mr. Dalrymple, in the very centre nearly of the pop- 

 ulous town of Lynn, — in pursuit of lands that will 

 aflford a profitable cultivation : quitting the homes 

 and graves of their fathers with an indifference, 

 which would sometimes seem to indicate that the 

 cold calculations of interest had impaired the force of 

 some of the better feelings of our natures, in pursuit 

 of a cheaper and more fertile soil, which the same 

 enterprise, better directed, would have taught them 

 to find in the " Wet Meadows and Swamp Lands" of 

 their own native farms. Add to the productiveness 

 of Mr. Dalrymple's meadow the value which the high 

 privileges of New-England confer upon all the land 

 situate within her borders, and he may safely chal- 

 lenge Ilhnois, and even the banks of the Red River, 

 for an instance of cultivation equally profitable. 



The example afforded by the experiment of Mr. 

 French, is scarcely less valuable to be presented to 

 the farming interest, than that of Mr. Dalrymple. It 

 is upon a smaller scale, and such as a majority of the 

 farms in the County probably aflfoid an opportunity 

 for cultivation. And Mr. French further informs us, 



