30 



ill ])crtcctiou, all the grains, vegetables and fruits of a more genial 

 climate. 



The farmers of Norfolk County have not the obstacles to con- 

 tend with, which once baffled the endeavors and lessened the 

 comforts of the farmer alluded to in Maine. But how many 

 acres, of nearly every large farm in the County, are now com- 

 paratively worthless in their natural state, which possess all the 

 elements of fertility, and might be rendered abundantly produc- 

 tive by a judicious system of drainage ! IIow much coarse, sour 

 herbage, or pale, stinted vegetation may be seen, caused by 

 excessive, though concealed moisture ! It may be supposed that 

 Avhile the moisture is below the surface, or but seldom apparent 

 above it, there can be no necessity for draining. Yet the quan- 

 tity of water actually discharged by such a drain from lands in 

 such a state, will often exceed all previous belief. And the sub- 

 sequent fertility of the soil, and earlier maturity of the crop uj on 

 it, will clearly demonstrate the importance and benefit of an ope- 

 ration, the effects of which no quantity or quality of manure alone 

 could have produced. 



Undoubtedly, there are many large tracts of low, moist ground, 

 that cannot be thoroughly drained ; especially on the borders of 

 the Charles R.iver. But such tracts may be greatly benefited by 

 digging ditches in them at proper intervals, and throwing the 

 excavated soil upon the surface, so as to shape it into beds, 

 rounded up and having considerable elevation in the centre of 

 each. Grass seed sown on these beds, with a good top-dressing 

 of manure, would grow luxuriantly and yield heavy crops. 



But it ma}' be said that the expense and labor attending the 

 drainage of moist, and the reclamation of waste lands, is an insu- 

 perable objection to the practice, with most common farmers. 

 We admit that the objection may properly cause many to hesitate 

 about such undertakings. But we are disposed, after all, to think 

 the objection in most cases an imaginary rather than a real and 

 sufficient one. We have in mind a reclaimed meadow, in the 

 town of Franklin, of Avhich, a detailed statement Avill be given, we 

 presume, in its proper place in this volume, and which strikingly 

 proves the folly of supineness and a timid apprehension of failure, 

 as a hindrance to such an enterprise. 



This meadow, or rather this once useless and unsightly bog, 

 contains about thirty acres. An energetic and enterprising farmer 

 bought it, a few years since, for $190. He then purchased a 

 right of way to it for $20 ; making the whole original cost $210. 

 He had paid for bogging and gravelling, $17 per acre ; and upon 

 one portion of it, we saw the finest vegetables growing ; while, 

 from another portion, the owner had taken a crop of herds-grass, 

 Aveighing on the public scales, at the rate of over three tons jier 

 acre. The whole designed operation had not, at this time, been 



