30 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



I have been improving my low grounds for fifteen years, and 

 have more than quadrupled my crop of English hay. I know 

 of no labor that yields a more certain return. I think (where 

 the ground is not too rough), inverting the sod and spreading a 

 light coat of gravel, manuring and seeding down to grass, yield 

 much the greatest profit for the labor. 



Danvers, October 1, 1846. 



Edwin M. Stone's Letter. 



At what time attention was first drawn to the reclaiming 

 of meadow and swamp land in Essex County, I am without 

 means of determining ; . but it is now something more than forty 

 years since the late Benj. T. Reed, Esq., of Marblehead, tested 

 the utility of reclaiming wet lands by ditching, covering with 

 gravel, &lq,. He owned four or five acres of this kind of land, 

 that produced grass of so poor quality as to be hardly worth 

 mowing. This same land, after being drained and suitably pre- 

 pared, yielded from three to four tons of good hay per acre. Mr. 

 Reed's experiment attracted attention, and doubtless was instru- 

 mental in promoting similar improvements elsewhere. Many 

 years ago, the late Peter Dodge, of Wenham, reclaimed a piece 

 of meadow land with a success that won the admiration of his 

 neighbors, and that induced others to engage in '• Peterizing " 

 their bogs, as the process was familiarly denominated. Since 

 then, the practice has been extensively adopted. 



This work has not, however, been pursued to the degree its 

 importance warrants. There are still, in this county, thousands 

 of acres of meadow and swamp land in their primitive state. 

 This land, now comparatively worthless, would, if reclaimed, 

 be highly valuable. I have in my mind, at this moment, a tract, 

 for which the owner would not now accept one hundred dollars 

 per acre, that a few years ago was worth not more than fifteen 

 dollars. I believe no land remunerates labor so well. An occa- 

 sional dressing of gravel or sand, to keep down the foul grasses, 

 and a thin coating of manure once in three years, will, in com- 

 mon seasons, ensure an abundant crop of English hay. 



