t ] 
are generally 4 or 5 feet wide, and about 2 ^ feet 
deep. The fidl or spring after our lands are thus 
drained, and the ground a little settled, we begin to 
clear, by cutting up the bogs, hassacks and bunches 
of elders, &c. The most effectual way of doing 
which is to cut them'up by the roots, and may be 
easily done, if you have proper instruments for the 
purpose. Besides the bog-hoe, which is in com¬ 
mon use, we have two instruments, one called the 
bog.hook and the other the bog-knife—the hook is 
from 20 to 24 inches long, about as crooked as a 
common scythe, but wider, made very thick and 
substantial in the back^ with a strong round eye 
twisted a little upwards, so that the edge lies fiat on 
the ground, when a man holding the handle stands 
half erect. With this instrument, if properly and 
substantially made, a man, acquainted with using it, 
will be able to cut more in a day than two or three 
men with the common bog hoe, and with more ease 
to himself. The bog-knife is an instrument, in my 
opinion, preferable to the bog-hook ; it is made a- 
boiit 20 or 22 inches long, and about 5 inches 
broad, and round at the point ; it is laid all around 
with the best of steel, and in plating it out it is left 
thicker in the middle to give it sufficient strength. 
At the other end is made a strong tine with a hole 
punched through it to fasten it on a strong handle 
in the same manner of the common pitchfork ; the 
tine is bent a little-upwards, and the instrument 
made a little crooked, so that a man strikes hori? 
.i^ontally with it when he stands half erect. With 
