74 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The cost of reclaiming peat lands varies according to location, 

 usually, however, at about one hundred dollars per acre. Now 

 a farmer that makes it a leading pursuit to supply milk for the 

 market, and is in possession of land of' this character that does 

 not pay the interest of ten dollars per acre, what farm work can 

 he pursue to better advantage than reclaim and cultivate a 

 portion of his " old meadow 1 " 



Milch cows fed with this 'root probably produce a greater 

 quantity of milk than from any other root cultivated. 



Having discussed the root crop thus far, the main question 

 may be raised. Which is the more profitable business for a 

 farmer in the north of Worcester County to pursue, to cultivate 

 those perishable articles for the market that he must push off 

 from the farm at a certain time, and suffer a loss of a large per 

 cent., or make it his main object to cultivate such crops as he is 

 not obliged to dispose of when the markets are full ? 



Probably by cultivating root crops he may have more ready 

 money at hand, and in a series of years be in possession of more 

 bank stock and treasury notes ; but that he is in possession of 

 of more or better property than to cultivate such crops as can 

 usually be expended on the farm, and thus improve the same 

 from year to year, your Committee doubt. 



In behalf of the Committee, Ephm. Graham. 



[The statements on the crops alluded to in the above Report are 

 necessarily omitted for want of definiteness as to the quantities of 

 manure used. A " load " may be an ox-cart, or a horse-cart, or a wheel- 

 barrow full, and nobody can tell what is meant. This indefiniteness is 

 also to he found in the statements made to other societies, and renders 

 them perfectly worthless.] 



CRANBERRIES. 



ESSEX. 



Statement of Gilbert Conant. 

 The following is a statement of my method and success in the 

 cultivation of the cranberry, for which I make application for a 

 premium. In the summer of 1881, 1 prepared about an acre of 

 meadow, by cutting a ditch to drain it, and in the fall I ploughed 

 it from four to six incites deep, according to the height of differ- 



