52 ON MEADOW AND SWAMP LANDS. 



the value of these lands very much within two or three 

 years past. Our mefidow and swamp lands, where they 

 can be drained at a reasonable expense, are now worth 

 from fifty to one hundred dollars per acre, and all doubts 

 as to the utility of redeeming these lands from the mort- 

 gages of water, bushes, &c., under which they have so 

 long been lying, have passed away, as the whole ex- 

 pense of rendering them productive, exclusive of drain- 

 ing, according to statements made by several gentle- 

 men who have kept accurate accounts of the cost for la- 

 bour, manure, &c., has been reimbursed by the crops of 

 one or two years at most, and in some instances includ- 

 ing the cost of the land and draining. See Mr. Osborn's 

 statements in the Reports of the Society in 1838 and 

 1839. The time seems to have passed by when preju- 

 dice and want of confidence in the success of the under- 

 taking shall, as heretofore, prevent reclaiming and cul- 

 tivating these lands ; and hearing farmers speak upon 

 this subject at the present time, it will hardly be credit- 

 ed that some thirty or forty years ago, a man who should 

 have undertaken to drain a piece of meadow land, and 

 to have carried on sand, loam, or gravel, for the pur- 

 pose of rendering it productive in grain or the best of 

 grasses, would have been laughed and sneered at, as 

 was Noah of old when he built the ark. 



The committee, having viewed Mr. King's meadow 

 and examined his statements, recommend the Society's 

 first premium of twenty dollars be awarded to him. 



ASA T. NEWHALL. 



ALLEN PUTNAM. 



RICIL'\RD PHILLIPS, Jr. 



DANIEL P. KINGS STATEMENT. 



To the Committee on Reclaming Meadow Lands : 



Genti,emen — I have made several experiments in 

 improving wet meadow and peat lands which I will, as 

 briefly as possible, state to you. 



