194 



Tliaer's Principles of Jgriculture. — Mineral Manures. Vol. X. 



cranberry. The growth of the grasses in 

 such situations will be feeble, while the 

 cranberry obtaining its sustenance mainly 

 from water and the atmosphere, grows luxu- 

 riantly, and will ultimately kill out the 

 grasses and obtain complete possession of 

 the soil. 



During the first three years, it is better 

 to pull out the grasses than to wait for the 

 cranberry vines to overcome them. Bushes 

 must be carefully removed as fast as they 

 spring up, because if suffered to grow they 

 would do great injury. No other attention 

 is necessary, excepting that good fences 

 must be maintained around the vines to pre- 

 vent the depredations of herbaceous animals. 



Profits. — One bushel of cranberries to the 

 square rod may be considered a good crop 

 from vines that have been set five years, 

 though we could cite particular instances in 

 which three and four bushels have been 

 gathered. Raising cranberries is like every 

 other business in life; if a man judges 

 rightly, is prudent and industrious, he will 

 commonly succeed ; but if he depends more 

 on good luck than on good management, in 

 nine cases out of ten he will fail. The 

 cranberry fever is now running high among 

 us, and almost every man you meet exhibits 

 some symptoms of the disease. That for- 

 tunes are suddenly to bo made by all who 

 embark in this business wo do not believe; 

 but that large profits can be obtained from 

 vines set in good situations, such as are 

 above described, there is no doubt. The ex- 

 periments of Capt. Henry Hall, Hiram Hall, 

 and Peter Hall, of Dennis; of Captain Ed- 

 ward B. Hallett and Edward Thacher, of 

 tills town, and many others that could be 

 named, prove that the raising of cranberries 

 in good situations is a profitable business. 



We know that some of the opinions which 

 we have given in this article will militate 

 against the theories of a few of our friends ; 

 but we cannot help it. We have carefully 

 examined almost every cranberry bog and 

 yard in the county, and have carefully com- 

 pared (he information thus obtained, and we 

 know that our opinions are corroborated and 

 supported by all who have had the largest 

 experience in the business. We do not vv'ish 

 to discourage any from planting vines. Far 

 fiom it. We say, go ahead. All we wish 

 is to discourage men from running blindfold 

 into a business, respecting which all the ne- 

 cessary information can be so easily and so 

 readily obtained. — Yarmouth Register. 



If you would have your hens lay through 

 the winter, keep them warm — feed them lib- 

 erally, with animal food to pick at, and see that 

 they have access to calcareous substances. 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 



Thaer's Priiicip!es of Agriculture— Min- 

 eral Manures. 



In these remarks on manures there is one 

 thing that constantly forces itself on the 

 mind; the extreme difficulty of deciding as 

 to whether we are right in the kmd of ma- 

 nure that we are using for our land. Where 

 land is in good condition this perplexity does 

 not occur, or not to any great extent ; but 

 where land is out of order, or where we 

 wish to make it produce more than it has 

 yet done, it requires great judgment and ex- 

 perience to enable one to make up his mind 

 how he shall proceed. We ask ourselves 

 what we shall do, and when we have decided 

 as to this, we then ask, have we the materi- 

 als with which to carry out our project. Both 

 of these questions are of serious import to 

 the farmer — the one taxing his judgment 

 and powers of reflection — the second all the 

 refources of his experience. The art of 

 manuring appears to consist in returning to 

 the soil what has been taken from it, and in 

 such proportions as to preserve the proper 

 relations of all its ingredients. There is no 

 crop that we can sow, that does not in some 

 degree disturb this relation; — to restore it, 

 to renew the condition that has leen so 

 altered, is the first and chief difficulty in 

 the art of cultivation. Necessity obliges us 

 to attempt this restoration, or else our land 

 will be to us like the individual who lives 

 upon his capital, and who has nothing to look 

 forward to as this melts away, but distress 

 and poverty. Where land is rich naturally, 

 it is exhausted with difliculty, and easily 

 brought up if it get oui of order; but let us 

 watch the farmer who is the unfortunate 

 owner of a bad soil in bad condition, and we 

 shall be able to form an idea of the expense 

 and labour, and attending efforts expended 

 on that which nature itself has frowned on; 

 it is like an unhapjiy pedagogue endeavour- 

 ing to fill the vacant and sterile brain of 

 some dull specimen of the human family — 

 it will require the exhausting toil of half a 

 lifetime, and even then leave little to com- 

 pensate for the labour, and be always liuble 

 to a relapse. The possessor of such a soil 

 should have the age of Methuselah if he is 

 to see the results of his labours; one- fourth, 

 of the life of this patriarch would have passed 

 before he saw much good come from his two 

 hundred years of hard work. Even on good 

 soils, but out of order, a man may grow old 

 before it is brought into a fertile condition. 

 It has been our fortune to see land, where, 

 to one coming from a more fertile country, 

 starvation would appear a necessary conse- 

 quence ; yet off such land is fed many a 



