ESSEX SOCIETY. 37 



It has been under cultivation for vegetables for a dozen years 

 past. It is a sandy loam, naturally rather a shallow soil. It 

 has been manured with four to five cords to the acre. The last 

 year, I raised on it sugar-beets and sage. I planted carrots this 

 year to bring it into a condition for the raising of onions. I put 

 about three cords of green manure from our barn-yard to the 

 acre. Ploughed it in about six inches, bush-harrowed it, avoid- 

 ing the use of the iron harrow, so as not to bring the manure to 

 the surface. Sowed the seed about the 10th of May, by a drill- 

 machine, in rows fourteen inches apart ; the lot was sixteen rods 

 long, and contained 78 rows. I sowed half a pound of seed of 

 the short-horn carrot. Weeded them twice. Pulled the carrots, 

 without any use of shovel or spade. I had six hundred and 

 forty bushels, weighing sixty pounds to a bushel, making nine- 

 teen and one fifth tons, valued at $7 per ton, making the gross 

 produce $138. 



Danvers, November 13th, 1847. 



Cranberries. 



The experiment of Winthrop Low, of Essex, is one of great 

 interest. It establishes the fact, so far as it can be done in one 

 year, that cranberries may be raised in perfection upon a dry 

 upland soil, without artificial watering. The soil selected by 

 him was, most of it, a sandy loam. It was perfect Indian-corn 

 land. The soil is porous, and would not retain water, even if 

 the ground were level. But it must be remembered, that in no 

 part of the field can the water stand so as to keep the roots sat- 

 urated any considerable time together. A small rill of water, in- 

 deed, passes through the field, but confined to a width not ex- 

 ceeding five feet, and usually not more than one foot. 



The running water is within about twenty-eight feet of one 

 side of the field, and from the row of cranberries next to the ditch 

 back to the side of the field, the ground rises, on an average of 

 the whole distance, twenty-eight inches, being an inch to a foot 



