47 



all needed, but how to get them in there, and what to cover them 

 with, was the question. The banks were soft, the mud from the 

 ditch had been carried away years ago. If that w*ater could only 

 be removed, I could then dig deeper, and get stuflF enough to 

 cover the stones, and the stuff thrown out on the banks and level- 

 ed off would make a road on which a team could travel to draw in 

 the stones. 



But to remove the water, I must go down some twenty-five rods 

 below the meadow to get fall enough to lower the water two feet, and 

 then that dam, which is now used for a road, must again be taken 

 up, and the water-course laid deeper. Will it pay ? That depends 

 upon how we look at it. I looked at it as I would the payment of an 

 old debt entailed by some past generation ; a debt that must be paid 

 by somebody, at sometime ; just such a debt as I believe the farmers 

 of the West are now entailing on their sons when they sell corn 

 and wheat to the East or to Europe at prices that do not pay the 

 depreciation of soil on Avhich it grew. My grandfather borrowed 

 capital of that meadow which he never paid, nor did he suppose 

 payment would ever be demanded. But times and ideas have 

 changed. Wet meadows and swamps that can be drained have 

 come to be considered by the most intelligent farmers of the 

 present day the very best grass lands of the country, although 

 the mass of farmers do not yet fully realize it, nor will they until 

 they learn the difference between partial and thorough drainage. 

 Removing the water must be the very first step. If that can not 

 be done for what the meadow will be worth when finished, it had 

 better be left till some future generation, more in need of land than 

 this, can afford to do it. This meadow lies very near to the farm 

 buildinsrs. It costs but little to cart manure on, or hav off. 



I can now plow every rod of it with any kind of a team with- 

 out meadow shoes. Can cart with narrow wheels, without o;ettin<:ir 

 mired, although the clear mud or peat is in many places four feet 

 deep. It is mowed with a machine, and I do not have to turn out 

 for a single ditch. I have this year taken two heavy crops of hay 

 from that part which had been plowed and re-seeded, and on a 

 portion of it three crops, in spite of the dry weather, and all of 

 them lodged. Since it was visited by members of the Committee, 

 I have turned over a half acre of it to be planted in the spring to 

 early potatoes, and re-seeded in August with herdsgrass and red- 

 top. 



The experiment has been a costly one, because what was done 

 last should have been done first. Much labor of cutting and 

 burning turf was lost, as it might have been done with the plow 

 after the water had been drawn off, and the bogs had dried for the 

 want of it. The quality of the soil is improved by spreading on 

 sand, clay, or gravel, but I find, contrary to my expectations, that 



