448 



hardy variety of the cranberry, taken from the phiiitation of C. G. and 

 E. W. Crane, of 'Sew Jersey, known as the Cape Cod Early Black-Bell: 



Moisture 80.50 



Organic matter 13.25 



Inorganic matter 25 



The common potato, which is a very succulent tuber, has only 74 per 

 cent, of water, and with that amount is very liable to ferment when 

 subjected to a moist atmosphere followed by high temperature. 



When the cranberry is well formed and firm in texture, its ripening 

 should not be hastened. Sudden transformations of conditions should be 

 avoided, so as to prevent a renewal of root and wood growth when it is 

 desirable to bring the berry to maturity. My advice to the members of 

 the association is the same as last year, namely, irrigate, sand, and lime 

 all unhealthy plantations, and be more careful in the selection of new 

 bog4and for cranberry-plantations. 



The following letter from Mr. Bishop, one of the most doted cranberry- 

 growers of New Jersey, will be read with pleasu re by all interested in 

 cranberry culture : 



Manahawkix, Ocean County, New Jerse y, Se^temhcfr 30, 1875. 



Hon. Frederick Watts, 



Commissioner of Agriculture : 



SiK : lu answer to your iuq[iiiries in regard to the cranberry-rot on iny plantations 

 this season, I would say that on the large one, called Oxycoccus, visited last j-ear by 

 Mr. Thomas Taylor, microscoi)ist of your Department, I shall have a larger, perhaps 

 much larger, crop of very fine fruit than I had the year he visited it. I have found 

 soft berries on several small spots of the plantation, but not in sufficient quantity to 

 cause any serious fears of permanent injury. We had never noticed or thought any- 

 thing about soft berries at Manahawkin until last season, but the great interest now- 

 felt in this matter has caused us to inquire carefully into the past history of wild and 

 cultivated bogs in our vicinity. We have recalled to memory two or three small spots 

 of bog on this plantation which produced a few quarts each of soft fruit several years 

 since, yet on those spots we have had tine fruit continually since that time. 



Mr. Charles Hinchman, of Taunton, was here about the first of the month, while I 

 was absent. His experience is large, and his judgment so good, that I always listen 

 ■with interest to what he says about ci'anberry-culture. When he saw some berries on 

 young vines growing on the hot dry sand which covered the peat, he said that the soft- 

 ness of the berries was not occasioned by the causes which usually produce the "rot," 

 but was the result of the intense heat of the sun. On all my fiuest-producing beds of 

 old vines, which have yielded hard fruit for years past, I remember that the vines when 

 young produce soft berries, but after they became well matured and matted — say, when 

 iPour or five years old — the fruit yielded was of good quality, and has continued to be so 

 to the present time. 



While I cannot help feeling that you have found the main cause of the "rot," I am still 

 forced to believe that much of the soft fruit found on very young vines is the result of 

 the very hot rays of the sun and moisture, independent of fermentation of imperfectly- 

 drained bog-bottoms. We are harvesting at present a very fine crop of cranberries. 

 The fruit is larger, more highly colored, and more abundant than that of last year, 

 despite the most unfavorable season for their cultivation that we have ever known. 

 Cranberries taken from the vines, and left for two or three days on the black peat 

 along the ditches, would in a short time become thoroughly baked like apples that 

 have been cooked in an oven. 



FACTS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 



Agricultural statistics of India. — Mr. C. E. Markham, a prom- 

 inent Anglo-Indian statistician, in a late paper before the British Soci- 

 ety of Arts, states that in oriental countries the necessity for agricul- 

 tural knowledge has been recognized from time immemorial, and statis- 

 tics have been gathered, but unfortunately the records have not been 



