134 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mauch 



had the greatest circulation in the vicinity, and a 

 purchaser soon appeared to inquire the price, which 

 he informed A. was altogether too high. 



Then the value of the accounts A. had kept for 

 his own amusement become manifest. By them he 

 then was able to show that the net income of the 

 farm was ten per cent, on the amount asked. The 

 farm was sold for a handsome advance on the whole 

 cost, which A. thinks, he owes mostly to his ac- 

 counts. A. thinks the fuller the farmer's accounts 

 of his crops, cost of cultivation, and net income of 

 his farm, the better advantage he has when he 

 wants to sell ; the better chance he has of getting 

 a fair price for his fiirm ; and that no farm work pays 

 better than that of keeping as accurate accounts as 

 possible of all farm aifairs. 



A.'s conclusion is certainly reasonable ; is it not 

 •worthy of being endorsed and acted upon ? 



Brookfidd, 1856. Yeom.\n. 



I now give you a statement of the proceeds 



1850, picked 17 bushels, sold 15 



bbls., 



Remarks. — Most certainly. The above is a very 

 happy illustration of the value of farm accounts. 



CRANBERRY CULTURE. 



[From the Middlesex Transactions.] 



Gentlemen : — I see in your advertisement of pre- 

 miums to be distributed, one for Cranberries, which 

 I hope to obtain ; and I refer you for a description 

 of the manner in which I proceeded to raise them, 

 to the Agriculture of Massachusetts, as shown in re- 

 turns of the Agricultural Societies of 1853, pp. 245, 

 as follows : 



"Mr. Flint's Statement. — In the autumn of 

 1843, I built a dam and flowed the swamp from 

 that time till August, 1846 ; then let off the water. 



The following October, burnt over the swamp, 

 and set the vines. The vines were cut up with a 

 sharp hoe or shovel, and set in hills, three and a 

 half feet apart ; the bunches about the size of a 

 quart measure. 



In raising from the seed, I planted in October, 

 1846, about half an acre; crushing each berry be- 

 tween the thumb and finger, and placing it just un- 

 der the mud ; single berries in a hill, three and a 

 half feet apart. Also, sowed broadcast a number 

 of bushels the following spring. Very few vines 

 appeared from them for two or three years ; no 

 berries till 1852, then very small; in 1853, good 

 size, in quantity, worth picking. 



My practice has been to stop the Avater in Octo- 

 ber, and keep it on till May, or until the weather is 

 warm enough to start vegetation — then lower it 

 down to the top of the vines, and keep it on them 

 until I think the spring frosts are over, then let the 

 vines be fairly out of the water until the berries are 

 grown — say from 10th to 15th August — then draw 

 it off for ripening and picking. 



We found three or four small beds of native 

 vines on the swamp, after we let off the water to set 

 the vines, and a few very fine berries; there is now 

 probably a dozen beds that bear berries. 



In 1850, we picked seventeen bushels of berries 

 on the swamp; in 1851, twenty-eight bushels; in 

 1852, ninety-three bushels ; in 1853, we estimated 

 them at one hundred and fifty bushels. 



In 1852, the native vines produced by estimation, 

 before seUing, forty bushels ; the transplanted vines, 

 sixty bushels ; the increase this year is, principally, 

 £rom the transplanted vines. 



$20,00 



5,00 



25,00 



$50,00 



- $540,00 



$1041,20 



115,67 



50 by estimation, pi-obable value 500,00 



$1581,00 



I learn from the first annual report of the Secre- 

 tary of the Board of Agriculture, that the cost of 

 preparing land and setting Aines is $1,50 to$l,87i 

 per rod, which is very extravagant, compared with 

 the manner I have pursued : 



The cost of building my dam, by contract, 

 Ox labor, furnished by myself, estimated. 

 Setting vines on about an acre. 



The cost of stopping and letting off water, and 

 taking care of the same since 1846, yearly, 

 $10,00, $90,00 



Reckoning the cranberries for the past six years 

 at six hundred bushels, and the cost of pick- 

 ing and marketing the same at 75 cents 

 per bushel, 450,00 



Net profit on $50 expended in nine years, 

 Yearly income on $50, 



Respectfully yours, Addison Flint. 



JVorth Reading, Sept. 25, 1855. 



I hereby certify that the above statement, in re- 

 gard to the management, the quantity sold, and the 

 amount received, are correct. Isaac Flint. 



JVorth Reading, Sept. 25, 1855. 



Remarks. — Since the above statement was made, 

 we have learned from Mr. Flint, that he had just 

 fifty barrels of cranberries as his crop of 1855, 

 which he sold for thirteen dollars a barrel, delivered 

 at the depot two miles from the house, making the 

 pretty sum of six hundred and Jijty dollars, as the 

 product of two acres of what was quite recently an 

 almost worthless bog meadow. Mr. Flint also states 

 that in looking about he notices a good many tracts of 

 land apparently as good for the cranberry crop as 

 his, and that some of the pieces might much more 

 readily be flowed and reclaimed than his own. 



For the New England Fanner. 



ENGLISH LAPSTONE POTATOES. 



Messrs. Editors : — Last spring I was induced to 

 pm-chase a quantity of the above variety of pota- 

 toes, — in part by the excellent character given 

 them, and in part by the belief that they were the 

 'old fashioned" Kidney variety, (long since num- 

 bered among the "good things of the earth which 

 were,") which had come home in its purity. 



My experience justifies its character for early 

 maturity as well as excellence in quality, and was 

 entirely free from disease, as was not the case with 

 all the other varieties cultivated by myself and 

 neighbors. I am now using them as a baking po- 

 tato, to which mode of cooking their formation is 

 more admirably adapted, presenting great surface 

 and little depth in proportion to size, and in that 

 mode of cooking, think them fully equal to the 

 Lady Finger and Carter. 



As a produce, they are far beyond my expecta- 

 tions, from the appearance of the seed, but wheth- 

 er the past season had the effect of inducing irreg- 

 ularity of size, or whether it is pecuUar to the vari- 



