PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 151 



fields in full bloom (June 6), for they indicated a course of culture 

 that will insure any country from sterility or exhaustion from 

 overcropping. 



As we frequently saw these flowery fields side by side, with 

 land upon the other side of the fence, exhibiting all the sterile 

 character of "the wilderness of New Jersey," the committee were 

 more and more convinced by every successive exhibition, that this 

 wilderness has been misrepresented whenever it has been called 

 barren. If naturally so, then it is cheaply redeemed by the inex- 

 haustible beds of fertilizing material in this and other marl locali- 

 ties — the best of all, and most convenient to the railroad, at 

 Squankum. 



It was the common expression of the committee, and of other 

 gentlemen present, that land capable of producing such crops of 

 clover is too valuable to lie idle and Avaste, when it can be so 

 cheaply redeemed— redeemed to produce the fine fields of pota- 

 toes, corn, and oats, which we saw in passing through Monmouth 

 county. 



Cranberry Culture. 



At Manchester, Ocean county, we walked over one cranberry 

 garden of thirty-five acres, and another somewhat smaller, and 

 saw others still in the distance. To some of the gentlemen this 

 kind of culture was entirely new, and to all very interesting, as it 

 demonstrates that the worst of the waste lands of the wilderness 

 can be brought under the most profitable cultivation. We found 

 the cranberry vines jiist coming into blossom, and those of the 

 committee familiar with the culture, were unanimous in the opinion 

 that the thirty-five acres owned by the Manchester Land Company 

 are equal to any young plantation we have ever seen, and certainly 

 very promising. 



We also find cranberry plantations springing into existence, not 

 only upon this and adjoining tracts, Init in various places through- 

 out this great Avilderness region, which certainly, if not soon made 

 to blossom roses, will blossom cranberries more extensively than 

 any other part of the United States. 



At Ellwood, Atlantic county, we made the acquaintance of 

 General E. Wright, and saw his maps and plans of 1,200 acres of 

 land lately purchased by the "Atlantic Company for the culture 

 of cranberries," and learned from him that 900 acres of it has 

 been surveyed into ten acre plots, all of Avhich are so situated 

 in relation to small streams, that each plot can be separately flowed 



