19 



At a meeting of the Tru?tees of the Essex Agricultural Society : 

 the premiums on the Improvement of Wet Meadow Lands wera 

 awarded as follows : — 



Rev. Henry Colman, 1st premiurn, •• - 20 dollars. 



Col. Jesse Putnam, 2d premium, - - • 10 " 



HENRY COLMAN'S STATEMENT. 



To the Committee of the Essex Agricultural Society on Reclaimed 



Meadow. 



Gentlemen — The reclaimed meadow which I propose for tho 

 examination of the Committee of the Essex Agricultural Society 

 contains more than one acre and a quarter. 



In the fall of 1S27 I began clearing it. There were many bushes 

 to be cut down and it was covered with coarse grass and rushes. 

 A large part of it was constantly overflowed or filled with water, 

 presenting a deep, miry, peaty soil, and scarcely in some places 

 passable for a man, much less for cattle. In some parts the peat 

 soil is deep ; but in most cases at the distance of three or four feet 

 we reach a hard bottom of clay and gravel. 



I began the improvement of it by making a drain of three feet 

 deep and about two feet wide in the centre for the whole length of 

 the meadow to a place, where by cutting through a very rocky 

 piece of ground, which formed a kind of embankment, there was a 

 sufficient descent to take off the water. Then by forming drains of 

 less dimensions round the out side of the meadow at the foot of the as- 

 cending ground, I cut off effectually all the springs, which flowed into 

 it from tho neighbouring hills ; and by connecting the side drains 

 with the main drain by lateral branches have turned all the water 

 into the centre drain, and thus led it off from the field. The drains 

 are covered excepting the outlet to the main drain. A channel of 

 about four or six inches square was laid on the bottom of each ditch 

 with such stones as we could find in the vicinity ; they were then 

 covered with the flattest or most suitable stones, which presented 

 themselves; a quantity of small stones was then thrown in pro- 

 miscuously ; a layer of thatch or Btraw placed on these, and enough 

 dirt returned to fill it up ; and the whole levelled and smoothed off. 

 The top stones of the drain were always kept ao far below the sur- 

 face as not to interfere with the plough. 



