102 CKAKBKRKT CTOTUEa 



The original cost of this 140-rod bog was two hundred 

 and fifty dollars (250), which cost includes the first cost 

 of land, and expenses of hoeing, etc., up to the time of 

 the first crop, in 1867. 



Wishing you success with your book, 



I am yours, etc, 



A. D. Makepeace. 



Tarmouth Port, Mass., Feb. 2\st, 1870. 



Dear Sir : — ^The whole story, all that is essential to he 

 known, may be comprised in a small compass. 



1st. The soil, or bottom, should be peat, or peaty mat- 

 ter. No cold springs — a head of water, so that the bog 

 can be quickly flowed at any time. 



2d. Remove all roots and turf down to the peat, where 

 it is deep. Cut ditches around the edge of the bog, two 

 feet deep, and three feet wide, and others across the bog, 

 if required, to drain it. Cover with sand that contains 

 no loam (and that will not adhere when pressed in the 

 hand), from three to twelve inches deep. Where the peat 

 is deep, the most sand is required. Set vines in hUls or 

 rows, two feet apart. Yours truly, 



Amos Otis. 



Harwich, Massachusetts, February, 1870. 



Dear Sir: — ^In reply to yours of the 2d, would say 

 that, about twenty-five years ago, I prepared two small 

 patches of muck swamp land by clearing off the bushes 

 and surface turf, or that containing the roots, then covered 

 it some three or four inches with sand and gravel, set out 

 the vines, and kept the water within two or three inches 

 of the surface. 



The vines grew very slowly, but grass and weeds lux- 

 uriantly, and both patches proved an entire failure. 



A few years afterward, I wheeled off the gravel and 



