ONMEADOWANDSWAMPLANDS. 73 



by digging a ditch through the lowest part of the land, but the 

 next year I found it did not clear it of superabundant water. 

 I then ditched it on the shores, which effectually drained it. 

 It was a peaty bottom, varying from twelve to thirty inches in 

 depth, with a stratum of about three inches of clay, mixed 

 with sand, immediately under which was a deep quicksand. 

 In ditching I cut through the clay into the sand, which effectu- 

 ally drained it. In the spring of 1844 I found it in a proper 

 state to plant with potatoes, but too soft for ploughing. I then 

 dug it with a spade, or what the Irish call a loy, laying it in 

 ridges about four and a half feet wide, with ditches between, 

 from twelve to twenty inches in width. Before digging I cov- 

 ered the ridges with gravel, two or three inches deep. I then 

 spread my manure on the gravel, and covered it by turning a 

 sod each way, making it into ridges in the same manner that 

 back furrows with a plough would do. A part of it I manured 

 with common winter manure from the barn, and a part I ma- 

 nured with ashes made of peat cut from between the ridges. 

 The early kinds of potatoes did well, but the later kinds were 

 destroyed by rust, when about half grown ; still my crop aver- 

 aged about four hundred bushels to the acre. 



In the summer of 1844, I undertook to plough a portion 

 which had not been cultivated, but did not succeed, it being 

 too soft for oxen to travel on. I then dug it over with the Irish 

 loy, laying it perfectly flat, as a plough would turn it without 

 ridging it. I then covered it with a mixture of sand, gravel, 

 and loam, about three inches deep, applying about twenty cart 

 loads of compost manure to the acre. I then sowed it with 

 herds grass and red top the first week in September. It prom- 

 ised well when winter set in ; but in the spring of 1845 I found 

 some of it killed with frost, and the land in appearance some- 

 what spongy, to remedy which I sowed more grass seed. 



The produce, this year, of 162 rods, is as follows : 



73 rods planted with chenangoes in April, 110 bush, $80 00 

 53 do. planted with blues in June, 125 bush. 50 00 



Amount carried over, $130 00 

 10 



