104 HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 



the business. I was resolved, however, to go ahead, and this 

 was one of the best resohitions of my Hfe. As I moved for- 

 ward, I soon found these mountains were molehills, and that 

 many of these ''insurmountables" were the exact materials I 

 wanted in the completion of my object. The rocks and small 

 stones upon the upland would make me a bold and durable 

 fence, the bogs would fill up the mire holes in the mucky por- 

 tions, and also the cavities in the upland, after removing the 

 smaller rocks. The large amount of muck thrown from the 

 ditches was just the thing for the upland, giving me an abun- 

 dance of manure. The pine stumps and logs furnished a good 

 quality of stove wood, for which I had been paying $1 50 and 

 $2 per cord, and, most of all, my friends had become convinced 

 of the practicability of the operation, and that, too, in my hands. 

 The lot now presents a smooth surface, with the exception of 

 some large stones on the upland. Every rod in the lot can be 

 ploughed with an ox team. Most of the upland has been 

 ploughed and cultivated with crops of wheat, corn, oats and po- 

 tatoes. More than two thirds of the mucky portion has been 

 ploughed, made clean as a garden, cultivated with potatoes and 

 oats, and seeded with herd's grass and clover. In seeding these 

 portions, I am in the habit of giving a liberal top-dressing of 

 horse manure, (which, I beheve, is preferable,) say 25 cartloads 

 to the acre, mixing it well by thorough harrowing. The por- 

 tions which have not been ploughed have a smooth surface, and 

 give me from one to two tons per acre of good stock hay, foul 

 meadow, blue joint, and a tall native grass which resembles 

 very much a large growth of red-top. I have been in the habit 

 of takino- up every year more or less for potatoes, with a view 

 to clean the land, and the next season would put on oats and 

 seed down. In seeding with oats, I have invariably lost much 

 of my crop from the great growth of straw, being down and not 

 well filled. The last year I adopted the "new system" from 

 the Massachusetts Ploughman, and, in the month of August, 

 after taking off the usual amount of the grass I have described, 

 I took up a piece by ploughing and dragging thoroughly, cleaned 

 it, gave the top-dressing, put in the seed, (timothy and red-top,) 

 av a half bushel of the former to three pecks of the latter, and 



