550 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Dec. 



that in six years could be made to be worth 

 $1(100 per acre. 



The Hrst consideration shouhl be flowage. 

 If a meadow cannot lie Hooded at ]»leasure, it 

 will amount to little to set the vines. They 

 should be llooded in the winter, to keep them 

 from the frost. They should be flooded two 

 or three times after blossoming, to kill off the 

 cranberry worm or maggot. He begins his 

 depredations u[)on the small berries and con- 

 tinues till frost comes, unless he is checked in 

 his evil ways. Flooding will drown him, and 

 not injure the berries. One day under water is 

 all-8utli(.ieiit to quiet him. The ground should 

 be flood( d again at the full of the moon in 

 Septr niber, if there is danger of frost, or at 

 any time when they are liable to freeze. It is 

 best to keep them on the vines as lon^ as pos- 

 sible. AVhen fully ripe the flavor is much 

 better than when picked green. If they are 

 flooded again directly after raking, there will 

 be many berries saved by their rising and 

 floating a>hore. 



The best possible place for growing the 

 cranberry is below a reservoir that can be 

 used at any time. A meadow thus situated, 

 can easily be made to yield 100 bushels to the 

 acre. On that portion of my little meadow, 

 from which 1 took the turf and the vines got 

 the stait of everything else, I raked at the 

 rate of 120 bushels to the acre. The soil 

 should be tuif'ed, which will cost from $50 to 

 $100 per acre. This turf will, in many cases, 

 pay for the labor of removing it. It becomes, 

 by decomposition, an excelient material to use 

 in barn-yards, hog pens and stables. It is 

 worth much more than nine-tenth of the farm- 

 ers are aware < f . 



The linal result depends somewhat upon the 

 variety of vines set. A larae purple berry 

 sells best in market. The righ tway is to go 

 into a uK'adow btfore the berries are gathered 

 and mark those spots with stakes that pro- 

 duce the largest, reddest berries. Let those 

 spots be the ones from which to take the 

 vines. Try no experiments with the half-ripe 

 looking fruit. 1 hey do not sell well in mar- 

 ket. 



Some cultivators cart on a coat of sand after 

 the turf is removed, before setting the vines. If 

 this is done, the sand should be clear from soil, 

 — plastering sand would be best. Two inches 

 deep is enough. It pays to put on the sand, 

 if one can get it. Some cut the vines close to 

 the roots, run them through a hay-cutter, sow 

 them like grass seed, and harrow or hoe in. 

 It is said that from every joint covered by the 

 soil, will spring a root. If this be so, this is 

 the right way to get the vines started all over 

 the soil at once. The advantage is, they get 

 the supremacy, and will not need so much 

 attention to keep out weeds, grass and bushes. 

 At any co.st, these intruders should be kept 

 out till the vines cover the ground, so as to 

 leave no room for them. 



I have thus hastily, yet perhaps clearly 



enough, given my notions of cranberry cul- 

 ture, to enable our Troy brother to decide 

 whether he has the right *ituaiion for cran- 

 berry raising. If he has no reservoir to draw 

 from, perhaps he can flow a portion of his mead- 

 ow, and put the rest into vines, and thus be 

 able to flood them at will ; or perhaps he can 

 find a chance away back in the woods, to build 

 a dam, and thus secure the necessaiy supply 

 of water. 



The reason of the failure of my crop has 

 been the short supply of water, for the last 

 few years, at the light time. I have decided 

 to flow a swamp, above my meadow, and thus 

 have a constant supply at hand at all times. 

 With this arrangement, that wid cost me, per- 

 haps, .$20, I feel sure that the two half acres 

 will be worth to me the interest of $1000 per 

 year, ana pay all expenses besides. J\Iy two 

 patches are situated one above the other, so 

 that the water that flows one will run upon 

 the other. The swamp I shall flow is still 

 higher up. 



I wish farmers would turn more of their 

 attention to this subjrct. It is one of the 

 undeveloped interests of our State that should 

 be looked after. The right time to do the 

 work is when it can be attended to. The 

 vines may be set in the fall or spring. Yours 

 for the full devtlopa^ent of the farming inter- 

 ests of our country. Z. Breed. 



Weave, N. E., Oct. 12, 1868. 



Remarks. — It is with much pleasure that 

 we publish this prompt response to Mr. Far- 

 rar's request for infoimation en the subject of 

 cultivating the cranberry. The failure de- 

 tailed by Mr. Breed is, if possible, more 

 instructive than even his practical directions 

 how to proceed in the preparation and man- 

 agement of a meadow. It is scarcelj' less im- 

 portant to know how not to do a thing than it 

 is to learn how to do it, in any farm work. 

 Many of our readers, as well as Mr. Farrar, 

 will thank Mr. Breed for his valuable article. 



Foi*the New England Farmer, 

 FOOD. 



No subject is of more vital importance, 

 either physiologically or economically, to far- 

 mers or to others, than that of footl ; because 

 we are almost wholly dependent on its proper 

 use and distribution for the muscular strength 

 and eflicient industry which produces individ- 

 ual and national prosperity. 



In a lecture on Food, (lelivered before the 

 Society of Arts, England, Prof. Letheby, after 

 presenting several elaborate tables of chemi- 

 cal analysis and relative values of different 

 kinds of food, deduces the fact that foremost 

 of all are those which come directly from 

 the vegetable kingdom, and of these those 



