THE PRACTICAL FARMER. 103 



plant the white birch, or the Scotch larch, or the goat willow, 

 (^salix caprea^ you would find that the two or three species of 

 trees would rather benefit than injure each other. The Scotch 

 larch is particularly valuable in forming a soil out of barren 

 drifting sands, for being a deciduous tree, its annual foliage 

 makes a thick layer of vegetable material which covers the 

 sands, while it does not essentially interfere with the growth of 

 smaller plants. This process being repeated year after year, 

 comes in time to produce a good and fertile soil out of barrenness 

 and sterility. The white birch, so admirably adapted to a mix- 

 ture in situations like yours, grows rapidly and in ten or fifteen 

 years may be thinned out to give additional space to the pines, 

 which by that time will begin to need it. It is very easy of 

 propagation by seed, and probably ten thousand young trees, 

 from a foot to three feet high, could be had at a cent apiece. 

 I have this season visited a plantation of pines on a soil pre- 

 cisely like much of yours, a perfectly barren sand, the owner 

 of which informed me that it had yielded him annually, on an 

 average, a cord of wood to the acre for twenty years during 

 which it had been formed. The soil had evidently been im- 

 proved ; young oaks and other hard wood trees were appearing 

 thickly among the pines, and no one could have told that the 

 plantation had been artificially formed, so thick and forest-like 

 had it become. 



" Aye be sticking in a tree, Jock ; it'll be growing while 

 you are sleeping ! " 



You have, also, unusual facilities for the cultivation of the 

 cranberry. We dwellers on the continent must take our turn 

 at the frosts of spring and the frosts of autumn, either of which 

 will be liable to injure or destroy our entire crop. You have 

 nothing to fear from this source, while you have many acres 

 which may be very profitably devoted to this crop. I know one 

 man in this State who for fifteen acres of cranberries has this 

 year received over thirty-five hundred dollars, and for the same 

 last year (1855) received over four thousand dollars, and this 

 with no cost of cultivation except the picking. 



On this subject I should be glad to dwell at greater length 

 did time and your patience permit, for of all our fruits I con- 

 sider the cranberry one of the most beautiful, the most health- 

 ful and the most profitable. 



