No. 105.] 501 



JOHN M. IVES' METHOD OF CULTIVATING THE PEAR. 



Salem, Mass., JYov. 19th, 1845. 



My soil is a light sandy loam, with a subsoil of gravel and clay, 

 made retentive by the application of clay, and salt. The former I 

 place upon the ground in the fall in heaps, and in the spring spread it 

 evenly over the surface, and plough it in ; the latter I spread also up- 

 on the surface in early spring at the rate of 30 bushels to the acre. I 

 cultivate pears upon the quince dwarfs, as some of the new Flemish 

 varieties grow better on this stock, especiallly the '" Duchess d' An- 

 gouleme." I have been more successful in the cultivation of the plum 

 since using salt. Upon three quarters of an acre, I placed last spring 

 early in April, spread broadcast upon the surface at least four hogs- 

 heads of damaged salt ; on the 1st of May this was spaded in. I usu- 

 ally prune in June, believing that wounds heal better at that pe- 

 riod. 



Yours respectfully, 



JOHN M. IVES. 



SULLIVAN BATES' METHOD OF RAISING CRANBERRIES. 



Bellingham, Mass., 1845. 



I first commenced the experiment of the culture of the cranberry 

 some eight years since, by transplanting the plants in their wild state, 

 on to upland soil, of a clayey nature. After harvesting a crop of po- 

 tatoes, I prepared the soil as for sowing grain, by plowing and har- 

 rowing, then marked it out lightly in drills, 18 or 20 inches apart. 

 The following spring I perceived that not more than two or three hun- 

 dred had survived. I then filled the vacancies by transplanting as be- 

 fore. In the fall I found I had been no more successful, than in the 

 previous spring. Upon an examination of those first planted, I found 

 many young plants shooting up from their roots. With these I filled 

 up the vacancies, and found them all to survive. An abundant proof 

 that they will become naturalized to a dry soil, and require no more 

 trouble in the raising, than the strawberry, or any other plant. I have 

 since made experiments on different soils, and find that they will do 

 well on any ground that will produce the potato. The first season we 

 must not expect much fruit. In the third or fourth, the plants will 

 cover the whole ground, yielding from two to three hundred bushels 

 per acre. From half an acre I have obtained 104 bushels, and should 

 no doubt have gathered many more if they had not been destroyed by 

 an early frost. I consider the cranberry crop, as sure as that of any 

 other fruit. It is sometimes injured by late spring frosts, while in 

 blossom; and sometimes by early frosts in August, as was the case 

 this year. Those who have land bord&ring upon a running stream of 

 water, that can be stopped, and made to overflow it at night, when an 



