112 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



opinion that there are, practically, but two varieties. Who 

 will s-ay that it may not yet rival, in diversity, character and 

 quality, other well known fruits now in general use ? The 

 parent peach of oriental countries had so strong an infusion 

 of the deleterious prussic acid in it, that it was not deemed safe 

 to eat. Tlie pear of the R(3mans, (according to Pliny,) unless 

 baked or boiled, was " too heavy meat," and yet, in modern 

 times, both peach and pear are delicious desert fruit, — many 

 berries, kindred, in some respects, to the cranberry, are still 

 deemed, and doubtless are, positively poisonous. Yet the 

 cranberry, whether grown on upland or in beach land, is 

 both an excellent fruit for the table and a valuable product 

 for the market. 



The many experiments made, and being made, at Cape Cod, 

 Cape Ann, Ipswich beaches, Marblehead, and other places, (if 

 we are fortunate enough to procure the result of these experi- 

 ments well authenticated,) may yet demonstrate the feasibility 

 of producing new and improved varieties. Our object is to 

 awaken the attention of growers to this subject ; and if they 

 have any waste bogs, swamps, or sand beaches, possibly they 

 may find it so much for their interest to improve some of them, 

 by transplanting the vine, sowing its seed, or scattering cuttings 

 in drills or broadcast over the surface, as to be themselves in- 

 strumental in discovering and producing new varieties, and 

 originating some new method of cultivating the fruit. At all 

 events, we earnestly commend these suggestions to the agricul- 

 turists of this and other counties, not without the hope of at- 

 taining beneficial practical results. In this way the great 

 object of all art and science is gradually accomplished. The 

 practical observer collects facts from which the man of science, 

 by logical processes, deduces theories to benefit mankind. 



As to cranberry culture, what mostly is needed in growing 

 the vine is moisture. Manure is useless, loam and soil are su- 

 perfluous — sterile beach sand is better than either. We mean 

 beach sand (sterile for all other purposes) is better adapted to 

 the growing of cranberries than either loam, soil or manure. 

 Pine gravel, if sand be not procurable, will subserve a good 

 purpose. Hence, residents on the margin of the sea, if they 

 have plenty of beach land, can profitably turn their attention 

 to the cultivation of the cranberry. Flowing is almost indis- 



