ON FRUIT TREES. 81 



111 closing this communication, I would say that what I have 

 written upon the cultivation of the cranberry, has come under 

 my own observation, and is confined to garden culture. What 

 the cranberry would do, with its delicate fibrous or hairy root, 

 adapted to a sandy peat or a sphagnous bog, when transplanted 

 to a dry soil, i'l an open field, with nothing to protect its roots 

 from the frosts of winter, is more than I can say. Those per- 

 sons who have had much experience in the cultivation of na- 

 tive plants, found growing in swampy or very wet land, will 

 have noticed that many plants will accommodate themselves to 

 a comparatively dry soil, and the cranberry may be one of those 

 plants. After several yeai's experience in the garden culture of 

 the cranberry, I can see no obstacle in the way of complete 

 success, provided the same care and skill are bestowed upon it, 

 that are rendered to a bed of choice and tender strawberries. 



SAML. P. FOWLER. 



Danvers, Nov. 6, 1850. 



ON FRUIT TREES. 



The Committee visited in the course of the season, the sev- 

 eral orchards and plantations of trees, to which their attention 

 was called, viz : Dr. Royal A. Merriam's, Wm. G. Lake's and 

 Moses Pettingil's, in Topsfield, Francis Dodge's and Lewis 

 Allen's, in Danvers, and Amos Gould's in Wenham, and others 

 to which they were not specially invited. 



The statements of the several claimants will best explain the 

 particular quality of the orchards. The committee will add a 

 few remarks expressive of their own impressions. But two par- 

 cels of pear trees were presented to their attention. Mr. Pet- 

 tingil's trees were set in 1846, immediately after the premium 

 was ofi"ered. Care was taken by him to obtain trees of fine 

 quality, and of the best varieties of fruit, from Mr. Manning's 

 nursery. They were set in a soil admirably adapted to their 

 growth, and have since been watched with the best attention. 

 11 



