ON RECLAIMED MEADOW LANDS. 95 



HORACE WARE, JR.'S STATEMENT. 



The piece of meadow that I offer for inspection, contains 

 two acres and two thirds, and was purchased by me in Janua- 

 ry 1849. It was considered at that time worthless, as far as 

 the crop produced, related, being a foul swamp of briers 

 and bushes, with the margin cut full of holes and ditches; 

 the water standing nearly level with the surface of the land 

 adjoining it, being a pond containing five acres. 



My first step was to clear the brush from off the land, which 

 was done that spring. In May, I made a ditch from the pond 

 and took away about three feet of the water. In September, 

 I dug a ditch around the margin of the meadow, about four 

 feet deep and two wide, and filled it up two feet with stones, 

 which cut off the high springs most effectually. 



I next ploughed it by means of a long rope attached to the 

 plough, with the cattle on the high land ; the swamp being too 

 soft to bear them. I then removed the roots and hassocks, 

 useing them to fill up the ditches and holes, and also to build 

 out the edge of the meadow into the pond, to make it even 

 and fair. 



The next spring, as soon as it was thawed about two inches, 

 I harrowed and planted potatoes, manuring them with rock 

 weed and kelp green from the sea. My crop was not great, 

 yielding about seventy-five bushels to the acre, worth one dol- 

 lar per bushel. 



In the winter of 1851, I hauled about forty loads of vault 

 manure and mixed with gravel, one part manure to three of 

 gravel, and spread it on, about one and a half to two inches deep. 

 In the spring, as soon as the frost was out four inches, I har- 

 rowed and cultivated, to mix the gravel with the mud, and 

 sowed grass seed on the 20th of March, viz : one and a half 

 pecks herds grass, three of red top, and five pounds clover 

 seed. 



In June, three months after sowing the seed, I mowed the 

 grass which was badly lodged, and got one and a half tons 

 of hay to the acre. 



I have since cut the second crop, which was about three 



