ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 89 



which I have covered, operate so well, that I intend to cover the 

 remainder. I filled the bottom of the ditch with small stones 

 to a gradual descent from the margin to the main ditch. I then 

 placed two rows of larger stones down the centre of the ditch 

 and covered them with the flattest that I could select, and then 

 covered the whole with currier's leather shavings, these being 

 about a foot below the surface of the ground. 

 Danvers, Sept. 20, 1848. 



Richard Dodge's Statement. 



The piece of reclaimed wet meadow, which I present for the 

 consideration of the committee, containing about two acres and 

 three quarters, was, in 1838, a sunken quagmire, almost en- 

 tirely worthless, except for some small fuel, such as alders 

 blueberry bushes, brambles, and grape vines, and, occasion- 

 ally, a tree. 



In the fall of that year, it being dry, I burnt over the whole 

 swamp, clearing up, as soon as the fire was out, all stumps and 

 roots that remained unburned. The fire had burnt out many 

 holes, as this peat soil was loose and deep, and many of these 

 holes a foot or a foot and a half deep. I then smoothed off all 

 the humps, broken roots, &c., filling up all the burnt holes, 

 making the meadow smooth. This clearing up was only upon 

 the one and a half acres now in mowing. The whole was then 

 well drained, by making three large and deep ditches length- 

 wise, one through the centre, between the present mowing and 

 tillage lots, and one on each side. These ditches were three 

 feet or more deep, four feet wide at the top, and three at the bot- 

 tom. Also, a wide ditch acrossthe lower end. The fuel I ob- 

 tained from the stumps has paid, I think, all the expense of get- 

 ting them out, as men had made the offer to do this work for 

 the fuel. I, therefore, consider my expenses as paid up to the 

 spring of 1843, except that of hauling on and spreading about 

 two inches of sandy loam and gravel from an adjoining pit, 

 over the greatest part of the one and a half acres. The re- 

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