138 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



other sections, yet it will prove as profitable to till, espe 

 cially as we are but a day s journey from both New York 

 and Philadelphia markets.&quot; 



If it be granted that it is a good thing to get a 

 farm, it would seem to be a better one to find it al 

 ready planted with a permanent crop. Such is the 

 condition of a natural cranberry swamp. But if 

 the plants there flourish with profitable luxuriance, 

 it does not follow that they can be cultivated with 

 advantage on no other description of land. There 

 are varieties which have been proved to be success 

 ful even on dry upland. But as such land is costly, 

 its use for this culture does not properly belong to 

 the subject in hand. Yet on the pine barrens of 

 Long Island, these berries have been raised at the 

 rate of seventy-five bushels per acre, after being set 

 three years, the sod from the native swamp, full of 

 plants, being transferred directly to the upland. In 

 various parts of New England, the upland culture 

 is reported to be profitable. But for light on this 

 question the inquirer is referred to such books as 

 treat fully of the cranberry culture. 



The reader of any of the numerous agricultural 

 periodicals issued among us, cannot fail to have 

 noticed repeated narratives of success in the recla 

 mation of swamp lands. There are many instances 

 in which the work has been accomplished at a sur 

 prisingly low cost, while in others it has been the 

 reverse. It should be the study of the beginner to so 

 select the spot on which he is to operate, as to take 

 that only which can be reclaimed at the minimum 



