1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



477 



attached a knife for cutting each row of corn. To 

 the axle is also attached shafts for the horse which 

 pulls the machine. The horse walks between the 

 rows of corn, and the knife just on the inside of 

 each wheel cuts the corn, which falls on a bed or 

 place to catch it, in a manner 'resembling the op- 

 erations of a wheat reaper. The bed which catch- 

 es the coin, opens in the centre at the pleasure of 

 the operator to discharge the corn in bundles. We 

 are informed that with one man and a horse the 

 machine will cut 20 acres of corn per day. It is 

 the invention of a citizen of Illinois. — Rich. Enqui- 

 rer. 



THE SEASONS. 



FROM THE GERMAN. 



Hay and corn nnci buds and flowers, 

 Snow and ice and fruit and wine — 

 Snns and seasons, sleets and showers, 

 Bring, in turn, these gifts divine. 

 Spring blows, Summer glows. 

 Autumn reaps. Winter keeps ; 

 Spring prepares, Summer provides, 

 Autumn hoards anil Winter hides. 

 Come, then, friends, their praises sound ; 

 Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, 

 As they run (heir yearly round, 

 Each in turn with gladness sing ! 

 Time drops blessings as he flies — 

 Time makes ripe and Time makes wise. 



these, the runners are started at each weeding, and 

 the vines are thus prevented from running and 

 covering the ground. A thick setting would, 

 therefore, seem advisable — the thicker the better, 

 if as close as within six inches of each other. 

 There is a great difference in the size and flavor of 

 the fruit growing in different meadows. The ob- 

 long fruit is much the best. Cranberry culture is 

 as well understood perhaps in the town of Sher- 

 burn as any where in the State, and before setting 

 your plants it would be well for you to talk with 

 some of the cultivators there. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 CRANBERRIES. 



Mr. Brown : — Dear Sir, — Although I am a 

 stranger to you, I wish to propound a few questions 

 on the growth of cranberries. I have fitted about 

 2h acres of upland, which I intend to set with cran- 

 berries. The soil is rather of a loam, and one part 

 is more moist than the other. When I commen- 

 ced, the land was covered with large breaks, what 

 is called with us " negro heads." I commenced 

 in 1852, with plowing it with two yoke of oxen ; 

 did not get at the soil the first plowing ; got all the 

 break roots we could, let it dry until last of Aug- 

 ust, then dragged it and went to carting off the 

 negro heads. I'hc next process was to dig the stone 

 and build the wall. I found so many stone that I 

 was compelled to build a very large wall — a part of 

 it is 7 feet wide on the top. The ground was so 

 wet in the spring I could not finish it until June. 

 It was then too late to set the cranberry roots, 

 and I sowed it with oats and have got a good crop. 

 It has cost me about three hundred dollars up to 

 this time ; and now I wish to get the best informa- 

 tion that I can how to set over this ground ; where 

 I can get the best fruit, and also whether meadow 

 roots are as good as upland ; how far apart they 

 ought to be set, and all the necessary information 

 pertaining thereto. Spencer Root. 



Uaydenville, Aug. 2ith, 1853. 



Remarks. — In an operation of so much conse- 

 quence as the one you describe, it is important to 

 proceed in the right way at each step. Our own 

 experience in the culture of upland cranberries 

 has not been sufficient to afford reliable data for 

 the guidance of others. We have found only one 

 difficulty in growing cranberries on upland, and 

 that is^the prevalence of weeds ; in extirpating 



SPONTANEOUS PLANTS. 



It is well known to our readers that the marshes 

 on South Boston Bay, between Roxbury and Bos- 

 ton, have been "filled up" within a few years, 

 with gravel brought in railway cars from Quincy. 

 This gravel, or a large portion of it, was taken from 

 a hill, where it had remained undisturbed for many 

 centuries. Yet this large tract of "made land" is 

 now covered with a dense vegetable growth, em- 

 bracing a great variety of plants, most of them of 

 common varieties, the seeds of which are compact, 

 hard and heavy, and covered with an enamelled 

 shell, all of which would seem to preclude the idea 

 that they could have been wafted from a distance 

 through the atmosphere. How could these plants 

 have originated ? Were the seeds deposited in the 

 gravel and soil, many ages ago, and have now ger- 

 minated on being exposed to the action of the at- 

 mosphere and heat? or is there some other pro- 

 cess of nature by which vegetation, under certain 

 circumstances, may be produced without any ap- 

 parent cause ■? 



Indeed, there are few things more extraordinary, 

 or have been a greater puzzle to naturalists, than 

 the appearance and development of certain plants 

 in certain circumstances. It is sometimes the 

 case that when a deep pit or well is dug, the earth 

 is thrown up from a great depth, fifty or a hun- 

 dred feet, and which has been for many ages buried 

 far beneath the surfiice of the earth, on expo- 

 sure to the atmosphere and the heat of the sun, 

 will give forth myriads of plants, of a certain de- 

 scription, and which, perhaps, have not been seen 

 in that vicinity for many years. It is stated on 

 good authority, that after the great fire in London 

 in 16GG, the entire surface of the destroyed city 

 was covered with such a profusion of cruciferous 

 plant, the Sisymbrium Irio of Linnteus, that it 

 was calculated the whole of Europe did not con- 

 tain so many plants of it ! It is also a well ascer- 

 tained fact, that if a spring of salt water makes its 

 appearance in a spot, at a great distance from the 

 sea, the neighborhood will soon be cofered with 

 plants peculiar to a maritime locality, which plants, 

 previous to this occurrence, were entire strangers 

 to the country ! 



When a lake happens to dry up, the surface 

 will almost always be soon covered by a vegeta- 

 tion which is peculiar, and entirely different from 

 that which flourished on its former banks. In M. 

 de Brebisson's work on the useful mosses, this 

 botanist states that a pond in the neighborhood 

 ofFalain, in France, having been rendered dry 

 during many weeks, in the height of summer, the 

 mud, in drying, was immediately and entirely cov- 



