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REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON IMPROVING 

 WASTE LAND. 



The Committee on the Improvement of Waste Land 

 have visited the two pieces entered, and award the follow- 

 ing premiums. 



$15.00. First premium, to John H. George, of Methuen. 

 10.00. Second premium, to Albert Titcomb, of Rowley. 



STATEMENT OF JOHN H. GEORGE. 



The piece of land which I enter for the society's pre- 

 mium for improvement of land to add to its agricultural 

 value, five years ago was in wood, cutting about thirty- 

 five cords to the acre, mostly oak, second growth trees 

 from six inches to two feet through growing in clumps, 

 the land lies about two miles from the city of Lawrence 

 and three-quarters of a mile from Methuen Village, in 

 Methuen, and adjoining lands sell for from $150 to $200 

 per acre. This piece was about as rough as any in the 

 neighborhood. I was prompted to buy, and clear it by 

 hearing a lecture at one of the Essex Co. Institutes 

 delivered by the Hon. J. J. H. Gregory, in which he said 

 if a man needed the land, and had the money it would 

 pay better to improve the land than let the money lay in 

 a savings bank at four or six per cent. I had the money, 

 the land was for sale, and whether it justifies Mr. Greg- 

 ory's statement the figures will show. 



I bought the land so that after the wood was cut off 

 and marketed the land stood me less than nothing (we 

 will call it nothing); the stone, of which there were cords 

 of them, sold for enough to pay for digging them out, and 

 were removed most of them for me so I shall make no ac- 

 count of them, but the toughest job of all which I had to 

 deal with was oak stumps, and I will guarantee that any 

 one who has tried to remove one will never forget it. The 

 first year I burned it and sowed it to rye and grass seed 

 which grew amazingly, some of it being six feet high; the 

 rye itself sold for enough to pay for all the labor on the 



