38 



Committee promised to be heavy, — indicated that the first crop 

 must have been correspondingly large. No manure has been ap- 

 plied, except one dressing of guano, as above mentioned. On an- 

 other part of the bog, the surface was taken off in 1859, two inches 

 of coarse sand spread on, and grass seed sown in September, that 

 year. A fair crop of hay, probably a ton to the acre, was taken 

 from the land in 1860. We noticed that the land seemed soft, 

 and that the water in the ditches was in many instances within a 

 foot of the surface. Unless the water can be kept down so as to 

 afford a greater depth of dry soil, it will hardly be practicable to 

 secure the growth of upland grasses for a long time, or obtain hay 

 of the best quality. 



On a portion of the upland, Mr. Metcalf has tried irrigation. 

 By damming a small rivulet, he was enabled to take the water 

 along a hill-side and throw it over considerable land, a part of 

 which was in clover and a part in red-top and herds-grass. The 

 effect, he states, was highly advantageous, both on the clover and 

 grass. His practice was to let on the water two days and shut it 

 off two, through the months of x\pril and May — would continue it 

 into June, if the weather should be very dry. Mr. M. is an earnest 

 advocate for irrigation, and has found out, w4iat some are slow to 

 understand, that all irrigated land should be tuell drained, either 

 naturally or by under drains. Those improvements are evidently 

 of a character that pa?/, though more time is required to enable us 

 to fix their precise value. We are pleased to learn that Mr. M. 

 is about to apply irrigation on a larger scale, and we hope he will 

 give the Society the results. 



We may add that there is no subject of greater importance to 

 the farmer than irrigation. Although its advantages w^ere set forth 

 in strong terms in the report of the Committee for 1859, we deem 

 it proper to call attention to it. There is no mode of improvement 

 that can be adopted Avith such great results in proportion to the 

 expense, as this ; and yet, strange as it is, none is so much neg- 

 lected in this country. The fertilizing power of water seems al- 

 most wholly overlooked. In other countries irrigation is much 

 resorted to, and even in this country w^e are not wholly without 

 examples, Avhich like that of jNIr. Metcalf, demonstrate its advan- 

 tages. It should be remembered that all the fertility, all the pro- 

 duce, obtained by water, is clear gain — nothing else is diminished 

 or in any way injured by it. It is to be hoped that attention may 

 be aAvakencd to this important subject, and that the water which 

 is now wasted, may soon be made to produce crops worth to the 

 country millions of dollars annually. 



William Metcalf, Franklin, has made some experiments in the 

 cultivation of forest trees. It was the intention of some of the 

 members of this Committee to have visited his plantation, but cir- 



