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The 71st Institute was held at the Town Hall, Bradford, 

 Tuesday, March 18, 1890, President Ware presiding. 



The subject announced for the morning session was "The 

 Reclaiming of Wet Meadow Land'' to be opened by Mr. T. 

 C. Thurlow of West Newbury, but owing to sickness he 

 could not be present and Rev. 0. S. Butler of Georgetown, 

 was called upon to open the discussion. 



Mr. Butler frankly stated in opening that his remarks on 

 farming were based more upon his observation of others 

 than upon his own limited experience. 



About one fifth of the territory of Essex County is in 

 wet meadow laud, and as a large proportion of this low 

 land is in close proximity of our homes there are two ob- 

 jects in reclaiming it— first, profit, and second, to improve 

 the beauty and sanitary conditions of our homes. 



In reclaiming, the character of the land must be taken 

 into consideration ; if there are from five to ten feet of 

 muck on the meadow, the treatment should be different 

 from where there is only one or two feet with a gravely or 

 clay bottom. But the primary object is to get rid of the 

 surplus water, and then improve it the same as upland. 



Mr. Butler cited several cases of reclaimed land that had 

 come under his observation, and said that some had 

 made it a permanent thing, and raised enormous crops on 

 it year after year, while others had spent a great deal of 

 money in draining and had let the land finally go back to 

 its original state, the expense being too large in keeping the 

 water out of it to make it profitable. 



To sum up his remarks Mr. Butler finally came to the 

 following conclusions : first, that these swamp lands can 

 be reclaimed, and second, that there are very few acres of 

 such land that will pay in dollars and cents to reclaim 

 when much of the best farming lands in the county may 

 be obtained at from $50 to $100 per acre, while the 

 cost of reclaiming the swamps, if reckoned at what it would 

 really cost in labor, would be from $150 to 8500 per acre. 

 President Ware, in opening the subject for discussion, took 



