378 
THE CULTIVATOR. Dec. 
useful for filling tanks to water gardens, where the 
Stream is lower than the garden. 
They are so constructed, that where the fountain 
from which water is to be taken is not sufficiently 
large to answer the purposes for which it is conveyed, 
and at the same time become the propelling power to 
move itself, the machinery may be moved by water 
from another fountain or stream; as for instance, a spring 
of soft water breaks out from a bank, near which a 
stream of hard water passes. The hard water can be 
made to drive the machine while it carries the soft 
water to the desired point, or vice versa. 
W. Bacon. 
Richmond , 1846. 
RECLAIMED LANDS. 
In the Boston Courier we find the statements of 
some of the competitors for the premiums offered 
by the Middlesex (Mass.,) Agricultural Society on re¬ 
claimed bog. 
Damel Shuttuck, of Concord, has a tract of land 
containing twenty acres, which eight years ago was 
overrun with hard-hack, whortleberry-bushes, alders, 
brakes, &c. It was first drained of the stagnant water; 
the alders and other bushes were next cut and burnt on 
the ground. It was then broken up as well as it could 
be, but the surface soil was so matted together by roots, 
that the plow would sometimes take up pieces of ten 
by twenty feet in extent. After the stirred surface be¬ 
came dried, it was burned or charred, the process of 
which is given as follows: 
“ First gather a few sods, quite dry, and set fire to 
them, and then pile on successive layers, keeping the 
fire from breaking out, as in burning charcoal. In this 
way, without any additional fuel, a large heap of ex¬ 
cellent compost may be produced, while the roots and 
seeds of noxious weeds and bushes are entirely de¬ 
stroyed.” 
The ashes thus produced were spread on the land, 
potatoes or corn planted one or two years, and then 
laid in grass with a crop of oats or barley, the ground 
having been previously levelled as well as possible. It 
has produced from a ton to two and a half tons of good hay 
to the acre, since it was seeded down. It does not 
appear that the land has been manured, except that he 
has used on it guano and salt. The former, he says, 
does well, though he believes “ the compost-heap will 
never go out of fashion.” As to the use of salt, he 
says he “ saw no good reason to repeat the experi¬ 
ment.” 
In concluding his statement, Mr. S. observes — (C Some 
may be disposed to ask, ‘ is farming in this way profita¬ 
ble?’ I answer, yes.” He admits that to bring this 
land to its present condition, “ required some courage, 
with a due proportion of faith and hope,” but he says 
the value of the land has increased four-fold, and will 
alone pay for all the labor bestowed. 
J. B. Farmer, of Concord, was another claimant for 
the premium on bog-meadows. His land was formerly 
occupied, he says, with “ water-grass, or cotton-liead, 
water-brush, and blue-vengeance, [what’s that?] the 
value of which would very little, if anything more than 
pay for cutting.” The soil is described as a fine black 
mud, of a crumbly nature, varying from fifteen inches 
to fifteen feet in depth.” 
He began by digging a ditch through the lowest part 
of the meadow, and another near the hard land, empty¬ 
ing into the main ditch. He has tried various modes 
of preparing such land for the cultivated grasses, and 
prefers the following: 
“I plow any time, (as is convenient) after haying, 
until the ground freezes; after the ground is frozen, I 
cart on gravel, sand, or loam, as may be, to the depth of 
two and one-half inches, spread and let it remain, un¬ 
til the frost is out to the depth of about four inches, 
(there still being frost enough left in the ground to bear 
up my team,) then harrow it until the mud and gravel 
are well mixed/then let it remain until July; I then 
sow on about one and one-half bushels of oats, one peck 
of herd’s grass, and one-half bushel of red-top seed per 
acre; then harrow or rake them in, as the ground ad¬ 
mits. The oats I let stand until they are ripe, which 
will be about September. I have manured with com¬ 
post, at the rate of twelve loads to the acre, soon 
after taking the oats off, and I have let it remain until 
late in the fall, then manured; and I have let it remain 
until spring, and then manured; but there was but 
little difference in the crop of grass.” 
He states that the hay on this land the next year after 
it was laid down, was estimated at three tons per acre, 
at the first crop. The whole cost of plowing, gravel¬ 
ing, and sowing, was not far from twenty dollars per 
acre. 
The editor of the Courier gives an abstract of the 
statement of another claimant, E. Wetherbee, of 
Acton, as follows:— 
(l His meadow contains about six acres. He began 
his operations for reclaiming three years ago last spring. 
The bottom was too soft and miry to admit of driving 
on a team. It was not worth more than five dollars an 
acre. Adjoining it, on the westerly side, was a large 
sand bank, which gave an ample supply of material 
with which to commence the work of reclaiming. He 
began by carrying on the sand with wheel-barrows, till 
the surface would enable him to drive on a team. The 
whole was covered with sand from four to six inches in 
depth. A covering of compost manure was then spread 
over it. In the spring it was sown with herd’s grass 
and red top. The quantity of hay produced the pre¬ 
sent year was three tons to an acre—herd’s grass, 
[timothy,] red-top, and clover. The hay is worth ten 
dollars a ton—consequently the product is thirty dollars 
an acre, on land, which three years ago, would not 
have brought more than five or six dollars, if offered 
for sale. The whole expense of reclaiming was about 
twenty-five dollars an acre.” 
ADDRESS 
Before the Berkshire Co. (Mass.) Ag. Society, on its 
thirty-sixth anniversary, by John S. Gould, Esq. 
We find a copy of this spirited and well-written ad¬ 
dress in the Columbia Republican. The object of the 
author appears to have been to show the great advanta¬ 
ges to be derived from an enlightened and systematized 
course of husbandry—the importance of exactness in all 
calculations, and the necessity of determining the pro¬ 
ducts of the farm, as far as possible, by weight and 
measure, instead of being disposed of by guessing. 
A great barrier to improvement in agriculture, the 
author of this address believes to be the prevalence of 
an idea among a portion of the farmers, that they have 
“ nothing to learn.” (C Nothing,” he says, “can be 
more disastrous to the cause of agricultural science than 
the prevalence of this stupefying idea. Never will ag¬ 
riculture assume her legitimate rank among her sister 
sciences, until the narcotic influence of this mental in¬ 
cubus is totally banished from the minds of the farmers 
of our country. 
“ It is true that many have assumed to teach agricultu¬ 
ral science who were incompetent to the task which they 
have undertaken, many ponderous treatises have been 
written filled with words of e learned length and thun¬ 
dering sound’ which only f lead to bewilder, and daz¬ 
zle to blind,’ while others, more intelligible to the 
great body of farmers, have been merely the results of 
experience derived from one geological formation, and 
one climate, which proves totally useless, when these 
important elements of vegetable nutrition are altered. 
The first class of works which treat of these abstract 
sciences from which the rules of practical agriculture 
must be deduced, are too technical for the comprehen¬ 
sion of the ordinary farmer, or if he comprehends them 
they are useless to him because they fail to point out 
the relations and applications of the scientific laws 
which they develope to the practical objects of agri¬ 
culture. A man may be able to state the doctrine of 
