MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 



Daniel Shattuck^s Statement. 



1 have a tract of land containing 20 acres, which I wish your 

 Committee to view. You may see what the present state of it 

 is, but I must tell you what it ivas, eight years ago. It had 

 been used as a pasture to the year 1837, when a few cows ob- 

 tained rather hard fare ; the ground was overrun with hardback, 

 kill-lamb, whortleberry bushes and alders ; what space was left, 

 beyond what these tenants occupied, was let out to breaks, and 

 in low places, (covered a great part of the season by water,) to 

 coarse meadow grass. 



The truth is, that this lot of land had had its own way so 

 long, that it required some castigation before it would become 

 obedient to wholesome restraint. The first thing that was done, 

 was to cut ditches in such way as to drain off the stagnant wa- 

 ter from the low places ; next, to mow the bushes, cut the al- 

 ders and other brush, and burn them on the ground ; after 

 which, as much of it was broken up yearly as could well be 

 attended to. I say broken up, for it was impossible to plough 

 it so as to turn over the sod. Sometimes the plough would take 

 a piece 10 feet by 20, all matted together by roots and fibres : 

 this would cause the ploughman to use some very hard words. 

 After the clods became somewhat dried, they were charred in 

 heaps, thus : first, gather a few sods qviite dry and set fire to 

 them, and then pile on successive layers, keeping the fire from 

 breaking out, as in burning charcoal. In this way, without any 

 additional fuel, a large heap of excellent compost may be pro- 

 duced, while the roots and seeds of noxious weeds and bushes 

 are entirely destroyed. This compost is spread upon the land, 

 after which, it is planted with potatoes or corn, one or two years, 

 then sowed with oats or barley and grass seed. Before this is 

 done, however, the ground is levelled, the high places serve to 

 fill the low, so that now there are no places where the water 

 stands after a rain, to invite the return of its former occupants. 



The whole lot, with the exception of a small piece, has been 

 cultivated, and produces from one to two and a half tons of 

 herd's grass and red top per acre. Since the first seeding, I 



