No. 10. 



Cran berries. — Raising Turkies. 



303 



which contains some gravel. Some vines 

 set a year ago, look well. Mr. Shiverick 

 and his neighbours are sanguine of success. 

 They are certainly deserving of it. The 

 great difficulty which they have to over- 

 come is, they cannot drain or irrigate their 

 yards when they may wish. 



The people at North Dennis, are only im- 

 itating in a small way, numerous and exten- 

 sive natural cranberry bogs on Sandy Neck, 

 which annually produce thousands of bush- 

 els of fruit. These bogs are claimed as tlie 

 common property of the sovereign people of 

 Barnstable and Yarmouth, and they also 

 claim the high prerogative of picking the 

 cranberries when and how they please. A 

 few years since Barnstable took possession, 

 and sued the Yarmouth people as trespass- 

 ers. The case after passing through many 

 courts, was finally decided at a law term 

 against Barnstable, so that all are again re- 

 stored to their inalienable right of picking 

 green cranberries at Sandy Neck. If these 

 bogs were private property, they would yield 

 a large increase, but being public property 

 they are of very little benefit to any one. 



The soil and subsoil of the Sandy Neck 

 bogs is beach sand, with a small aduii.xture 

 of decayed vegetable matter. The best 

 cranberries grow where there is the least 

 vegetable matter. The reason for this is 

 not that cranberries will not grow on a 

 richer soil ; but that on the poorer grounds 

 they will extirpate grass, and even the rush, 

 wherever the surface is well drained in sum- 

 mer. The bogs are covered with water in 

 the winter, which soaks away and evapo- 

 rates in the course of the spring. The soil 

 is always damp and water is always found 

 near the surface. 



I have given, at your request, Messrs. 

 Editors, all the facts known to me, that I 

 thought useful to your readers. I make no 

 recommendations. I have endeavoured to 

 state the facts accurately, and 1 leave it to 

 others to conclude whether they can profit- 

 ably cultivate the cranberry. 



Amos Otis. 

 Yarmouth, March 15th, 1844. 



Editorial Remarks. — We are much obliged 

 to our correspondent, for the pains he has 

 taken in collecting information and giving 

 an excellent article on one of our most valu- 

 able and profitable fruits. We published an 

 article sometime since, showing the great 

 advantage of sand as a dressing for cran- 

 berries. 



As strawberries grow well on fresh mead- 

 ows and bogs, and yet are sometimes very 

 productive on salt marshes, is it not reason- 

 able to suppose that a plant that will flour- 



ish so well as this does on salt lands, will 

 in fresh meadows be benefited by salt? And 

 as they succeed so well where there is no 

 salt, may we not suppose that much salt is 

 injurious, and that there would be an im- 

 provement on salt marshes in reducing, in 

 some cases, the quantity of salt, by draining, 

 so that the salt water which covers the land 

 at high tides, may readily run off, and not 

 too much soak into the land, or by prevent- 

 ing a flow when convenient? 



As this subject is very important, we 

 should be pleased to hear the opinions of 

 those who have useful information on the 

 subject, and we would recommend experi- 

 ments with salt on a small scale. Different 

 quantities should be used, at the rate of five 

 to twenty bushels an acre. Make exact 

 experiments, marking off the land, and 

 making a memorandum and measure the 

 produce, and make the various experiments 

 on land of equal productiveness. We shall 

 be pleased to hear from those who try it. 



As to flowing cranberries, it has been a 

 general practice to let the water off about 

 the 1st or 10th of May, but to prevent 

 early blospoms, and a liability to destruction 

 by frosts, some cranberry growers last sea- 

 son, kept their grounds flowed till the last 

 of May, and they thought this system was 

 an improvement. We name it lor experi- 

 ment. Some meadows through which con- 

 siderable streams of water run, are flowed 

 in a short time when there is prospect for a 

 frost in summer, by which large crops are 

 obtained in seasons when there is a general 

 failure. — Boston Cultivator. 



Raising Turkies. 



We have occasionally made reftrence to the profits 

 to be derived from attention to poultry in the vicinity 

 of our large cities. The following sensible remarks 

 are made by a correspondent of the Cultivator, and 

 are dated Hartford, Conn. Those immediately inte- 

 rested, may gather some good practical hints from 

 them.— Ed. 



My first experiments with the turkey 

 were unsuccessful; and most of my good 

 neighbours, when they heard of my failures, 

 were prompt to exclaim, " we told you so." 

 But the loss of all my eggs the first year, 

 and little better the next, did not convince 

 me that turkies could not be raised. I have 

 this year raised eighty-six, and feel quite 

 sure, tcould raise two hundred another with 

 little difficulty. For two or three year.s 

 past, I have succeeded so well, I feel some 

 confidence in saying that others will run no 

 great risk in adopting my plan. 



He who would succeed well in this busi- 

 ness, must, during the winter, feed his flock 



