ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 91 



The corn, on the other part of one and a quarter acres, is es- 

 timated at sixty bushels per acre, and, of the potatoes ah-eady 

 dug, 20 hills made a bushel. This lot was managed much in 

 the same manner as the one described. It has been planted 

 three years ; the smallest crop the present year. Sandy loam 

 was put on the part planted with corn. 



Wenham, Sept. 27, 1848. 



R. A. MeiTiam^s Statemejit. 



I offer for premium about four acres of partly meadow and 

 partly swamp land, to which I have been devoting some atten- 

 tion, for the purpose of reclaiming it from a nearly useless state. 

 I began about six years ago, (after my neighbor, below, had 

 opened a thorough water-course,) by ditching and covering the 

 intermediate spaces with the mud that was thrown out. These 

 ditches were cut from the main one to the shore, about thirty 

 feet apart, wide and deep enough to afford a perfect covering 

 for the spaces between. After levelling and smoothing, I sowed 

 hay seed, &c., raked it in, about a peck of herds-grass, and one 

 bushel of red-top seed to the acre. Without any other prepara- 

 tion, I cut from one to two tons of English grass to the acre. 

 The quantity of grass lessened in the course of a year or two, 

 and I then spread on about five cords of compost manure to the 

 acre, in the fall, which increased the amount of hay to between 

 two and three tons to the acre, and most of the meadow that I 

 have worked upon is now in this state. 



But the piece, to which I have invited your attention, con- 

 sisted mostly of bushes, from four to ten feet high, high blue- 

 berries, alder and swamp sumac or dogwood. This piece, con- 

 taining about one and a quarter acres, was reclaimed, by cut- 

 ting and burning the bushes on the ground. On a part, the 

 whole surface was removed, piled in heaps two years ago last 

 spring, and, in the fall, burned. On another part, the surface 

 only was smoothed, removing the stumps and rubbish from the 

 ground. I sowed the usual quantity of hay seed over the whole, 



