180 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



feeling like a bed of moss — and hence is ever termed 

 a mossy skin. But a thick-set, hard, short hair, 

 always handles hard, and indicates a hard feeder. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CRANBERRY CULTURE. 



COWS- 



For the New England Farmer. 



-CARROTS— WHEAT. 



I notice a communication in your last number, 

 in regard to feeding carrots to milk cows, which 

 confirms my own observation on the subject. And 

 now wish to inquire if you, or any of your corres- 

 pondents, have had any experience in feeding them 

 Mr. Brown :— Seeing several communications in to young cattle (3 and 4 year olds) that are being 

 the Farmer, on the cultivation of the cranberry, ! fed for market, and if so, what has been the result? 

 I thought I would venture a few observations. It! Their is an opinion prevalent here, among some 

 is generally observed that in cranberry meadows, j cattle growers, that they possess no fattening pro- 

 the fruit is grown on isolated plats, some of them ! perties and think they are hurtful, 

 fruiting alternate years, some bearing every year,! H. S. Morse, of Shelburne, Vt., (who has the 

 and others always barren. The question arises, past summer, in company with S. W. Jewett, of 

 what are the causes of this variation. It is a no- Weybridge, imported some French Merino Sheep) 

 ticable fact, that the plants generally grow in plats ' this past season raised from four acres of land, 19b 



©f a rod square, and less. How did these orig- 

 inate? I think that they came from the seed. In 

 passing over a meadow one will notice a difference 

 in the foliage almost as striking as in the foliage of 

 the strawberry plants. The fruit will differ as 

 much in form, as a pine, from an alpine strawber- friends, perhaps Mr. Brooks, of Princeton, will an 



bushels of winter wheat. Can that be beat ? 



Yours truly, Edwin Stanton. 



Paincsville, Vt., Feb. 14, 1852. 



Remarks. — We hope some of our experienced 



swer the question in relation to feeding carrots, [or 

 any other roots] to young stock. We doubt wheth- 

 er California can beat the yield of wheat mentioned, 

 without smuggling some of their ten found pota- 

 toes into the measure. We are glad to notice all 

 about us a new interest in the cultivation of this 

 important crop. 



gp* The article in another part of this number, 

 headed "Intellectual and Rural Delights,'''' and 



ry. In the flavor and amount of acidity there is 

 a wide difference. A plant will bear fruit in three 

 or four years from the seed, and continue bearing 

 for several years. After that it will become old, 

 large, and barren. 



It does not root from its runners unless they be- 

 come covered with earth, or the scum that floats 

 upon the water ; as the water (in the summer) 

 settles away it fills upon the plants and keeps 

 them moist, which causes them to root. They will 

 strike root as readily as the quince, if layered in 

 upland. In meadows where there is no scum to, 

 form new runners, they grow several feet long with , the remarks which it has called forth by our asso- 

 no roots except the parent, or seedling roots, the date, Mr. Holbrook, will be found worthy of an 

 main stem grows large, and the plant barren. Is 'attentive perusal — especially by young men en- 

 this barrenness caused by a deficit of roots to sus-! ao . ed in the business of cultivating the earth. A 



tain an overgrown top, or is it old age'? I think it „,. •, i.- „„ ,„„ /•«„,. „ «™ 



. 1A ° » xr ii- j.i • • 4. sort of discontent, and sometimes, we i ear, a con- 



is not old age, for by setting them in moist up-. ' ' ' 



land, and layering in the tops, or runners, they' tempt for the noble and manly employment of hus- 

 will root readily and fruit. A layer will strike ajbandry, has found its way into the minds of too 

 handsome set of roots in three weeks, over two many. They are dazzled, we suspect, by the clink- 

 inches in length. That the cranberry can be cul- 1 mcr coin of some retu rned Californian, or some dash- 

 tivated on upland is beyond a doubt Why is it . * sh k out of the thousands who em- 



that so many have not succeeded? I think the & , • , t 

 greatest trouble was in setting poor plants, and i barked with them. 



not giving them sufficient moisture. Mr. Cole, in Farm work requires a capital in coin, in talents 

 his Fruit Book, estimates that in the State of and ability, and in muscle and sinew, as well as in 

 Maine more than 2,000,000 of varieties of the ap- 1 jnerchandizino- or navigating the ships of commerce, 

 pie have been produced ; of that vast number fewj And h tMg ital & invested , farm work is no 

 have been found worthy ol cultivation. May noti , , „. , , ., ,, .... . 



as small a proportion of the cranberry plants grow-j more a labor of drudgery than any other-it is not 

 ing wild be worthy of even a trial? j half so much so. The lawyer is tied to his terms, 



We all know the disadvantage that one would and the merchant to his counter ; the physician to 

 labor under if he should set a bed of strawberry hi s never-ceasing horse-mill rounds, the clergyman 

 plants gathered from the fields and meadows ; he to hig • h and the mechanic tohis be nch. But 

 would see fine plants but no fruit. Does not the „ r , ,, ,, P . , ri ,. 



cranberry planter labor under the same disadvan- ' th e farmer breathes the free winds of heaven on his 

 tage? But the strawberry planter has the benefit hills, and drinks from the crystal springs that flow 

 of the amateur's experiment, whose productions through his valleys. The first beams of the morn- 

 are vastly superior to those not domesticated. Is j no . sun touch his brow amid the waving grain of his 

 there not as good a field for the amateur's skill in ° ished fie lds, while he bathes his feet in the 

 ameliorating, and domesticating the cranberry to ° . . A ., ,, , ,, Ko«/i;«™ 



garden culture ? cool dews that have gathered upon the bending 



If they co minence with the seed, is there reason , grass. He reclines at noon in the shade of his old 

 to doubt that they would be improved as much as trees, and walks among his springing corn, or 

 the strawberry which appears in the height of per- profits by the cheerful criticisms of his wife and 



fection, compared to what it was a few years ago. 

 Yours, A Subscriber. 



children upon his garden culture, as they stroll 

 about among the plants he is rearing. He goes to 



