94 



the top of the ground with small stones, after making a small 

 culvert at the bottom for the Avater ; then covered the ditch 

 with o-ravel. The most of the ditches that I have filled with 

 small stones, as above named, have become clogged and filled 

 up, and it has been necessary to dig new ones. I have sup- 

 posed that muskrats and meadow moles in some cases have 

 had something to do in filling up among the small stones on 

 meadow land, where there is a small depth of mud. On high- 

 er land the woodchucks will sometimes burrow and clog up 

 the ditch. 



I have used a large amount of stones for underdraining, 

 and in some cases it has been done to good advantage, as the 

 subsoil would pay for throwing out for top-dressing, and the 

 small stones were buried out ot sight. I should, however, 

 in most cases, recommend tile for underdraining, where they 

 can be buried sufiiciently deep to protect them from frost, I 

 have extended these remarks far beyond Avhat I intended 

 when I commenced, and will now close. 



Joseph How, Chairman. 



STATEMENT OF J. J. H. GREGORY. 



Gentlemen of the Committee : — The Improved Wet Mead- 

 ow I enter for your examination is a tract of about a dozen 

 acres, located on the Glover Farm in Marblehead, and bor- 

 dering on Atlantic Avenue, Avhich extends from Marblehead 

 to Swampscott. The meadow is muck, from two to six feet 

 deep, resting on clay. Previous to reclamation, the tract was 

 but of little value for any purpose ; it was wet, rough, and 

 mostly covered with rushes and coarse grasses. About twen- 

 ty-five years ago there was an attempt made to reclaim a small 

 portion of it, but there then being insufiicient drainage, it 

 was a failure. The first step taken was to open a deejj ditch 

 of about eight hundred feet in length, which was walled with 

 stone its entire length, at the cost, when finished, of about a 

 dollar a linear foot. The desisrn was that this ditch should 



