1851. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
37 
There are two reclaimed swamps on this farm, 
of about twelve acres each. They are underlaid at 
suitable distances with stone drains, wherever there 
is sufficient fall to the land to produce a good draught 
through them; and where the land is nearly level, 
open ditches are made. The open drains used fre¬ 
quently to become inoperative by the washing and 
caving in of their banks—occasioned by high fresh¬ 
ets in the spring. After various experiments, the 
following plan for their protection was adopted: As 
early in the summer as the water had fallen away 
so as to admit of working, a commencement was 
made at the lower end or outlet of the ditch, by 
throwing a temporary dam across it, a few rods 
above or up the ditch; the portion thus freed of 
water was then cleared out; the sides were made 
of a uniform and proper slant; narrow trenches 
were dug, four inches lower than the natural level 
of the bottom of the ditch; sods were cut from the 
swamp, six inches wide, eighteen inches long, and 
four inches thick; then, commencing in the narrow 
trench, four inches lower than the bottom of the 
ditch in order to prevent the undermining of the 
work, and following up the slanted sides with one 
course thick of sods, and breaking joints in the up¬ 
ward course the same as is done in laying brick, and 
laying the sods grass side down, the wall or sodding 
was carried up nearly to the surface of the swamp; 
a sufficient portion of the surface was pared down 
to a level with the wall to admit of a sod on top, 
laid grass side up, and level with the surrounding 
swamp, and resting on the sod wall and on the 
natural ground; the face of the banks was then 
trimmed smooth with a spade, the temporary dam 
moved further up the ditch, and so on, till the whole 
line was completed. The grass immediately started 
from the edges of the sods, and before winter, the 
whole surface of the banks was well covered with 
grass. These banks have stood perfectly for nine 
years. 
In draining the bog meadows, a ditch has been 
dug three feet deep and four feet wide, the whole 
length of the border between the uplands and the 
meadows- In this a stone drain was first made, 
then the ditch filled with stones, and a stone wall 
built on top for a fence, by which three purposes 
have been accomplished; the stones from the up¬ 
lands have found a resting place, out of the way of 
the operations of tillage; the springs flowing into 
the swamps from the uplands have been cut off; and 
the earth taken from the ditch is just the thing for 
a covering for the meadows. When the drainage is 
completed, those parts of the meadow that have 
dried off enough to bear up a team are plowed, and 
those that are still too wet and miry are turned over 
with a bog-hoe. When the surface of the meadow 
is frozen, clay, loam or gravel, whichever is handiest, 
is carted on and spread one and a half inch thick, or 
at the rate of about an ox-cart load to each square 
rod of ground. On the top of that a good coat of 
compost made of loam and manure is spread, and 
then a half bushel each per acre of herds-grass and 
red-top seeds sown. After this, most of the land 
can be plowed; and as often as the cultivated grasses 
need renewing, the sod is turned over in September 
with the plow, manure applied on top, and grass- 
seed sown. Forty tons of hay have been cut in a 
season, on twelve acres of the reclaimed meadow. 
Mr. Stone plows and manures about 25 acres of 
his upland, yearly. A part of this, however, is not 
cropped at all, but is kept open for the benefit of the 
trees growing thereon. The balance is devoted to the 
growing of vegetables for market, the raising of car¬ 
rots and other roots for the stock, and the cultivation 
of field crops. For the land that grows vegetables, 
he purchases horse manure from the city stables and 
mixes it with compost made by the hogs, in order to 
start the crops early. For all other crops, the ma¬ 
nure used is wholly made on the farm, and is applied 
at the rate of thirty loads, of twenty-five bushels 
each, per acre. Mr. Stone is in favor of deep til¬ 
lage. He plows his land as deep as the soil will 
admit, gradually increasing the depth, until, on 
some of the fields, his largest sod plow, will go no 
deeper. He thinks that almost any land may be 
advantageously deepened by turning small portions 
at a time of the subsoil to the surface, to be convert¬ 
ed by sun, air, frost, and manure, to productive 
loam. Under this system of deep plowing and high 
manuring, his crops are all luxuriant, and when 
those portions of the land devoted to a rotation of 
crops are laid to grass, he thinks they give him an 
average of two tons of hay to the acre, at a first cut¬ 
ting. Two hundred loads of first crop hay have 
been put into the barns this season, fifty of which, 
with the rowen crop, the corn-fodder, roots, &c., will 
keep his own stock, and leave the balance for mar¬ 
ket. 
A good deal has been done, with excellent effect, 
in the admixture of the different soils upon the farm. 
Four horses and four oxen are kept for farm-work, 
and at leisure times they are emplo 3 ^ed in exchang¬ 
ing soils. The muck from the low meadows is 
drawn to the yards for compost, and from thence to 
the upland fields. As before remarked, the lowland 
meadows receive a coating of clay, loam, or fine gra¬ 
velly subsoil, the latter of which is found to be the 
best, for it supples in greatest quantity, those mat¬ 
ters that give strength of stem to the cultivated 
grasses, and which are deficient in the peaty soils. 
In various places on the upland stiff soil, the under¬ 
lying clay comes through to the surface, and the land 
retains too much moisture, in some seasons. On all 
such places, from one to three inches of sandy or 
gravelly loam are spread, with an effect upon the 
crops that is apparent to the observer in a moment. 
