85 



of hay to the acre, every year since. The hay is not the 

 best stock hay, but sells well in the Boston market. 



The meadow, Avhich I now offer for consideration, has 

 been reclaimed about six years. It was covered with bushes 

 ten feet high, which were grubbed and burned, and the land 

 seeded down with herds^grass and red top, and it has pro- 

 duced two tons to the acre every year since the first. This 

 year we estimated, by weighing one load, that the yield was 

 three tons of herds-grass, red top, and other grasses. The 

 expense thirty dollars per acre. Twenty dollars v^orth of 

 fuel was preserved from tAvo acres, in pine stumps and roots. 



Now, if the reclaiming of these half dozen acres within 

 stone's throw of our dweUing, added to as many more ad- 

 joining, all in full view of the public highway, and in the 

 heart of the village, is no improvement, so far as dollars 

 and cents are concerned, it is, at least, a relief to the eye, 

 and a gratification to the taste and feelings of every good 

 farmer, who has had opportunity to observe the change. 

 The damage to the health of the neighborhood, which so 

 much stagnant water and putrefaction would make, must be 

 certainly lessened. These reclaimed lands are exempt from 

 some of the foul weeds of uplands, I have never seen 

 white weed, lady's slipper, nor the Canada thistle, on these 

 lands. They will always make good returns for any kind 

 of dressing, and are not affected by the season, but yield 

 better, if anything, in a dry season, 



Topsfield, July 25ih, 1853, 



J. F. C. Hayes' Statement^ 



The meadow I have offered for consideration, comprises 

 from one and a half to two acres. One year ago it was a 

 mass of muck and brush -— a forsaken spot. It was rendered 



