PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 311 



use of the article as a fertilizer. In an experiment, several 

 years ago, by Mr. Alden, of East Bridgewater, the results were 

 something more favorable; but there was not enough efficacy 

 manifested in that instance, to justify any thing like a general 

 use of salt, as manure. From observation, we think it highly 

 beneficial, and a very enduring fertilizer, on some soils ; and 

 on some, that it produces no visible effect. Trials on a small 

 scale, will best serve to show where it can be used with profit. 

 In the orchard and nursery, it can always be used with benefit, 

 as a preventive of insects ; care being taken, not to have it 

 come in contact with tender trees, as it would kill them much 

 quicker than insects. In the culture of plants of marine ori- 

 gin, salt may be pretty freely used, and with great benefit. 

 The applicant for the premium appears to have complied with 

 all the conditions of the offer, and therefore ought to receive 

 it, though little or no benefit accrue to the public. To Mr. 

 Collamore is awarded ten dollars. 



Five claims were entered, to the premiums offered for the 

 most successful experiments in the cultivation of cranberries. 

 One has been withdrawn, and another claimant deceased, be- 

 fore making any progress in his experiment. Paul Hathaway, 

 of Middleborough, Luther Richards, of West Bridgewater, and 

 Libbeus Smith, of Abington, have presented statements. In 

 these we perceive, that the habits of the vines, and the soils 

 most congenial to their growth and productiveness, are no more 

 than very imperfectly understood by the applicants. And we 

 suppose this is the case with farmers generally. We have been 

 accustomed, till within a few years, to regard cranberry vines 

 as intruders in our low meadows, and have studied the means 

 of their extermination, rather than of their increase and fruit- 

 fulness. The cultivation of them is a new process, in which 

 the operator can avail himself of comparatively little scientific 

 research, and of only a very limited experience. To great ex- 

 tent, he must frame his own theory, and prove the correctness 

 of it in his practice. The variety of soils will occasion widely 

 different results of similar operations. Theories will be numer- 

 ous, and all of them may seem well sustained by practical re- 

 sults, in certain localities. The general, and, as we suppose, 



