34 HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The peat was from two to eight feet in depth, and of a reddish color 

 before exposed to the air, it had now to the depth ploughed become 

 black and very fine. 



I now began to think of changing the crop fearing it might ex- 

 haust the land if continued in buckwheat. I next planted broom- 

 corn and potatoes, using five loads of compost manure to the acre in 

 which I put one bushel of lime per load. From eight acres of corn, 

 I had six hundred bushels, seventy-five bushels per acre. From ten 

 acres of potatoes, twenty-five hundred bushels, or two hundred and 

 fifty bushels per acre. The broomcorn was six hundred lbs. per acre. 

 I have continued with the above crops for twelve years with good 

 success, with one exception. In 1843, I had ten acres of potatoes. 

 There came a heavy shower and some five or six loads of earth slid 

 into the deep cut and flooded the land ; the drain was soon cleared 

 and the water off" in less than twenty-four hours, but it spoiled the 

 potatoes without doing any damage to the corn, or other crops. In 

 1849, I planted forty acres with potatoes and had ten thousand bush- 

 els. I set a small piece with tobacco four years in succession, it 

 grew well every year ; last season I set two acres which produced 

 seventeen hundred lbs. per acre, this season I set fifteen acres Avhich 

 is better than the crop last season, on the above fifteen acres I put six 

 loads of compost and eight bushels of lime per acre. 



I now Sir, have given you a history of reclaiming the land, with 

 the produce except the buckwheat, which was fifteen to twenty bush- 

 els per acre, average seven hundred bushels annually from forty 

 acres. 



I will now give you an account of the expense. 

 The wood paid for clearing the land. 



525 rods of drain at 37 1-2 cts. per rod, $195 



160 " " at 40 " 64 



160 deep cut " at $2 " 320 



Ploughing, draining &Lc., 40 acres at $15 per acre, 600 



Three years Interest before getting crops, 215 



First cost of 50 acres at $5,50 per acre, 275 



Total, $1669 



The present worth of the land, 40 acres at $150 



per acre, $6000 



10 acres at $50 per acre, 500 



$6500 



Net profit, $4831 



If there is any error in the above account, it is in the present price 



of the land, as I might with safety add one thousand dollars more. 



I have been offered and can now take two hundred dollars per acre 



for twenty acres of the best of this land. There are hundreds, and I 



