NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



19 



Housatonic rivers, well adapted to this fruit. In- 

 deed, and ground which will produce corn, it has 

 been said, will produce good cranberries. Still 

 their native place seems to be in low grounds. That 

 its cultivation is profitable, there can, as we think, 

 be no doubt. Nor is there any danger of an over- 

 supply. The price might become less, but im- 

 proved methods of culture and implements for 

 gathering would enable the article to be afforded at 

 a lower price; and if that was the case, the con- 

 sumption would increase with the supply. We 

 should like to see some of the grounds which are 

 now completely worthless producing their fifty or 

 one hundred dollars per acre, in cranberries. We 

 should like to see the hardback give place to the 

 cranberry, having the utmost confidence that itcould 

 not be less profitable. — Berkshire CuUurist. 



PROPER TIME FOR FELLING TIMBER. 



Mr. William Painter, of Concordville, Pa., in a 

 letter written for the Patent Office Report, says: 

 "During an experience of more than forty years as 

 a plain practical farmer, I have taken much inter- 

 est in ascertaining the best season for felling timber; 

 and I now state, with much confidence, that fenc- 

 ing tim.ber, such as all kinds of oak, chcsnut, red 

 hickory, and walnut, cut from the middle of July 

 to the last of August, w-ill last more than twice as 

 long as when cut in winter, or common barking 

 time in spring. For instance cut a sapling, say 

 five or six inches in diameter, for a lever, in the 

 month of August, and another of a similar size and 

 quality, in winter or spring, and T know that if the 

 first is stripped of its bark (which at that time runs 

 well, it will raise as a lever, at least twice the 

 weight that can be raised by the latter." 



Statements like the above, made by reputable 

 men who can have no motive to misrepresent facts, 

 are always entitled to a respectable consideration. 

 Why should a green "sapling, six inches in diam- 

 eter, cut in August," be any stronger after it is 

 well seasoned, then it would be cut in winter or 

 spring? 



While we doubt the fact of the difference being 

 so great as Mr. Painter thinks that he has good 

 reason to believe it to be, we do not question that 

 there is some difference. The woody fibres of the tree 

 are the same in August and in winter and spring. 

 the new layer of wood, alburnu/n, is thin and com- 

 paratively small, and most of this is deposited be- 

 fore August. The proportion of sap or water in a 

 green tree, varies but little in different seasons of 

 the year, as compared with its dry matter. What, 

 then, is the exact difference in timber in autumn 

 and in spring, after a tree has put forth its leaves, 

 and its terminal branches are rapidly extending by 

 Uie deposition of the new wood ? When is the 

 matter organized which flow^s as sugar dissolved in 

 water, from the sugar-tree in the spring, before 

 even the buds begin to swell ? In what condition, 

 and in what place does the saccharine substance 

 spend the time from autumn till March ? Mulder, 

 in his valuable worlc on the "Chemistry of Vegeta- 

 ble and Animnl Physiology," says that all sugar is 

 first formed into starch from carbon and water; and 

 that it is from this starch that both sugar and new 

 wood, in spr'ng, are produced. We are aware that 

 other chemists have taken a different view of this 

 subject, but we believe that Mulder is right. We 

 know that lat in animals is a sort of store-house of 



fuel which the animal can burn when its food is 

 lacking or deficient to maintain vital warmth. Po- 

 tatoes, and many other plants possess unequal 

 quantities of starch at different periods and under 

 (iifferent circumstances. A green sapling in the 

 spring, has all its starch and albumen, or the raw 

 material for making a vast number of leaves, much 

 new wood, and its tissues, in which nitrogen is 

 consumed, taken out of its trunk and distributed in 

 tliousand of branches, and in terminal buds. That 

 the trunk should be a little weaker when thus de^ 

 prived of all its soluble solids, is no more than we 

 might reasonably expect. To transform starch, 

 which IS insoluble, into soluble dextrine, sugar or 

 gum, is the effect of the first warmth of spring, or 

 winter, for in many States maple sugar is made in 

 January and February. 



If the above view of this interesting question is 

 founded on true physiological principles, as we be- 

 lieve it is, then the best time to fell a tree is after 

 it has ceased to grow in autumn, and prepared, like 

 a fat bear in the fall, a good supply of starch and 

 nitrogenous compounds, in all its sap-tissues, for 

 use when it is ready to put forth a new covering 

 of luxuriant foliage. There is strength in the ele- 

 ments of forest leaves, and these elements while 

 deposited in the cells of sap-wood, if dried therein, 

 increase its durability. Dry rot is a fungus which 

 destroys a great deal of ship and other timber. 

 Whatever operates to exclude atmospheric air, 

 lends to prevent this malady. Several minerals, 

 like copperas, corrosive sublimate and blue vitriol, 

 will kill the fungus called "dry-rot." Exclude 

 oxygen from wood and it cannot decay. Painting 

 preserves it on this principle. — Genesee Farmer. 



Remarks. — This is a subject on which we have 

 had line upon line, and various opinions founded on 

 experiments which have given different results; and 

 yet, the subject is not definitely settled. We 

 have often heard a very intelligent carpenter say 

 (hat timber cut in June, when the bark runs freely, 

 is better, and heavier for plain stocks, than that cut 

 in any other season. He also observes, that he 

 found such timber very durable. But the timber 

 liiat he used was in small pieces, and it was 

 ihoroughly seasoned, so that it was not liable to 

 dry-rot, like large timber that is not readily sea- 

 soned. — Ed. 



DOMESTICATING FOWLS. 



Mr. Freas: — To render poultry raising profitable, 

 it is essential that great care and circumspection be 

 exercised, not only in the selection of valuable 

 "breeds," but in feeding and rearing the young. 

 If the raiser is remiss in these points, no profit will 

 result from the enterprise, and as a general thing 

 he will, to adopt an old adage — "Have his labor 

 for his pains." 



There is a vast difference in fowls, and while 

 some are hardy and profitable, others are weakly 

 and scarcely pay their way under the most favora- 

 ble circumstances, and the best management pos- 

 sible to bestow. It is always a judicious plan for 

 the farmer to keep a number of fowls, of some kind, 

 upon his premises, as there is always enough waste 

 or refuse matter to feed them, and beside, they are 

 serviceable in protecting the crops by destroying the 

 numerous insectivorous depredators, which in the 



