1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



435 



THE3 BliUEBBKRT. 



We have often thought that something 

 might be done in the way of cultivating this 

 useful berry, which can be served upon the 

 table in so many palatable forms. Talking 

 with a farmer from a neighboring town, the 

 other day, we were interested by his experi- 

 ments in raising blueberries. He commenced 

 by burning over an unproductive field many 

 years ago, and now annually sends to market 

 from three to six thousand boxes. Large 

 numbers go to Boston, and the two principal 

 hotels in this city have taken each seventy-five 

 boxes per day during the season. He bums 

 over his field once in two or three years, and 

 sows each fall two or three bushels of the dried 

 berries. 



He pays five cents a box to pickers, and 

 some women earn from $1.00 to $1.25 per 

 day ; the berry season is a holiday time with 

 the pickers, and gives the women who spend 

 the rest of the year in sewing for the ready- 

 made clothing dealers, a healthful vacation. 

 Our informant said he had paid $300 a year 

 for the gathering of his blueberry crop, and 

 he found it as profitable as any other crop 

 raised on his large farm. In favorable years, 

 the blueberries had a long season ; he had sent 

 them to market as early as the 5th of July and 

 continued up to the 15th of September. — Port- 

 land Transcript. 



LAMB AND GKEBIJ" PEAS. 

 A few weeks since we published a simple 

 prose statement that the hay seed which was 

 scattered into the wool of some sheep belong- 

 ing to Robert Batchelder, of Salisbury, N. H., 

 while feeding them in the winter, had sprouted 

 on turning them out in the spring, and the 

 sheep were bearing about with them a crop of 

 grass two inches in length. This story prob- 

 ably reached the poetical editor of the New 

 York Mail on one of our late hot days, and 

 this is the way he tells it : 



This is the most interesting story that ever 

 we have seen, concerning some New Hamp- 

 shire sheep who are wearing of the green. 

 'Twas related by a person on whose honor, we 

 rely, he never hack-ed cherry trees, and — 

 shouldn't tell a lie. Robert Batchelder, this 

 was the shepherd's name, and he pastured 

 twenty-eight sheep on Salisbury plain. But 

 when the leaves had fallen, and November 

 winds were chill, why out on the open wold 

 they couldn't get their fill. So Bobby kindly 

 put them in a well protected shed, with hay 

 enough to feed them, in the mow up over 

 head. And the seed it sifted down and it 

 lodg-ed in their wool, and there it did remain, 

 till the April moon was full. And thfen out 

 went the mutton, all in the rain, you know, 

 and, in less than twenty-one days, the seed 



began to grow ; and it grew, and it grow-ed 

 like the bean in fairy song, and now the grass 

 upon their backs is more'n two inches long. 

 And, it is expected, that, later in the year, 

 red, fragrant clover blossoms will appear. 

 The moral of this sheep tale is clear to every 

 eye, that by judicious management, if a person 

 cared to try, he might, with little trouble, and 

 with aid of rainy weather, have his lamb and 

 green peas growing up together. 



EXTKACTS AND KEPLIES. 



FALL CATERPILLARS. 



Having been a reader of the Farmer for several 

 years, I see you answer all kinds of questions, 

 but I am not sm-e that one whose schoolliouse was 

 a ship's forecastle, whose pen was a marline-spike, 

 and whose ink -stand was a bucket of slush, will 

 be allowed to "heave up'" a query. But I should 

 like to ask how to expel a new sort of web cater- 

 pillar, that commences on the ends of the branches 

 of my young orchard ? 



FAILURE OF SCIONS. 



I wish also to ask why scions have not taken as 

 well this year as usual ? Did the warm weather 

 that we had in March cause the sap to start too 

 soon? 



CANCER IN A COW's EYE. 



Can you or any of your readers tell me what to 

 do for a cow that has a sore in her eye that appears 

 like a cancer ? Jack. 



East Jay, Me., July 21, 1868. 



Remarks. — A college education, of which our 

 correspondent informs us he is deficient, is not a 

 necessary qualification for admission to our list of 

 correspondents. Nor is it a requisite to usefulness 

 in life generally, however convenient and advan- 

 tageous it may be to those who possess it. In re- 

 lation to your web caterpillars, we know of no 

 other way to expel them than to pick off the leaves 

 on which they first appear, or if they get too large 

 a web, cut off the end of the branches to which 

 they are attached, and crush the worms under foot. 

 Undoubtedly you knew that could be done before 

 you asked for an easier way, and perhaps will 

 hardly feel that our advice is worth asking for. 

 We have kept our own trees clear by hand picking ; 

 but if any of our readers know of a better way 

 we shall be glad to publish it. 



This insect is comparatively new in this section. 

 The first description of it ever published was in 

 the New England Farmer of August 22, 1828, 

 written by the late Prof. J. W. Harris. He gave 

 it the name of Fall Web-worm. The moths which 

 lay their eggs on the leaves, near the end of a twig, 

 appear in June and July, and the eggs hatch in 

 July and August. The young caterpillars at once 

 begin to build a shelter for themselves, by cover- 

 ing the upper side of the leaf with a web. A la- 

 bor in which all hands engage. Having erected 

 their tent they feed in company beneath its shelter, 

 devouring only the upper skin and pulpy portion 

 of the leaf, leaving the framework and lower skin 

 of the leaf untouched. As they increase in size 



