88 ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



boy. After ploughing, I cut cross ditches on each side, commu- 

 nicating with the main drain ; I then removed the gravel from 

 the upland, in wheel-barrows, to the meadow, to the depth of 

 about three inches. As the land was a soft quagmire, boards 

 were laid over it, on which to wheel the gravel. In the follow- 

 ing winter, I dressed the land with a compost of anthracite coal 

 ashes, soil, waste lime, &c., from tanneries, the whole being well 

 saturated with soap-boiler's spent ley. In the spring of 1846, 1 

 sowed it with one and a half bushels red-top, one and a half 

 pecks herds-grass, and two pounds clover, and cut, that year, 

 two tons of English hay, of good quality. In 1847, the same 

 lot of one acre and a quarter of land, yielded four tons. 



This year, 1848, the yield from the same land has been four 

 tons 220 lbs. of English hay, equal to upland. 



The expenses and yield of the reclaimed land were as fol- 

 lows : — 



Ploughing, ..... 



Ditching and gravelling, .... 



Compost, ...... 



Grass seed, ..... 



Crops. 



1846—2 tons hay, at ^16, 



1847—4 » «' ... 



1848— 4J « at $12, (sold from the field,) , 



Deduct $4 per ton, for making, . 



Income for three years, . . . . $105 32 



I ought to have stated, that the plough used had a circular 

 cutter attached to the roller, which did much to facilitate the 

 work. The soil or bog, before ploughing, was from two to six 

 feet in depth, resting on a hard sub-soil of sandy clay. Since 

 ditching and gravelling, the bog has settled a foot or more. The 

 land was of little or no value before draining. The ditches 



