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skate ; in spring it was made hideous witli the croaking of 

 frogs and paddocks, and in summer the blackbirds built their 

 nests in the tall grass. In the year 1827, (I think it was,) 

 my father being feeble, I concluded, with his consent, to take 

 one step at least toward removing the nuisance, which was to 

 dig across the road six or seven feet deep, make anew bridge, 

 and thence into the land of my neighbor, to drain off the 

 Avater. This work I accomplished, and spread the contents 

 taken from the road on the borders of the meadow, which 

 produced large crops of hay. 



The next year, the water having drained off, I dug a ditch 

 across the deepest part of the meadow, and found the great- 

 est depth of mud about three and a half feet, but the outlet 

 across the road was not sufficiently deep to draw the water 

 more than about three feet from the surface. I also dug some 

 ditches in the other direction, as circumstances seemed to re- 

 quire. 



In the spring of 1829 my father died, and I came into pos- 

 session of the farm by purchase from my brothers and sisters' 

 Now in regard to the meadow thus far, I had been successful ; 

 the stagnant waters had been drawn ofi', and the noxious rep- 

 tiles had abandoned it, and the question now was, how can it 

 be improved and made protitable? 



I attempted to plough it, but was misuccessful, as sedge 

 beds w^ere scattered over the meadow, which, in addition to 

 cranberry vines, made it impervious to the plough. Again 

 the question came back, how can I improve the meadow? 

 There was no precedent to my knowledge, as draining and 

 cultivating meadows Avas entirely a new thing, and my neigh- 

 bors were like Job's comforters, had no faith in my success, 

 and thought it had better go to cranberries, although they 

 were of but little value. The next two years I did but little 

 to the meadow, except draining it more thoroughly, as cir- 

 cumstances seemed to require, by cutting off the cold springs 

 on every side, and spreading the subsoil ou to the surface, 



