140 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



a shoo mannfacturer, to afford milk for his family." 

 An accomil wu,s kept of the ))uttei- made from her 

 in one season. Tliis was in 1816 ; and from May 17th, 

 when her calf was killed, to December next following, 

 she yielded 16 Itis. of butter per week, besides one 

 quart of milk per day for the use of the family. 



]\Ir. Pkoctoh says, " of the truth of this statement 

 there is not a shadow of doubt. A more reliable 

 man than Mr. Oakes never lived. I knew him well. 

 But it may be said that she was high fed or she never 

 could have done this. So be it. Can it be expected 

 of any animal to create such produce from nothing ? 

 Suppose a cow to yield 20 (piarts of milk a day 

 throughout the year, how much do you think would 

 be the weight of the milk? If I figure right, 15,000 

 ibs., or nearly 8 tons. Can this be expected of a 

 cow without something to feed on ? " 



FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SEC. 

 OF THE MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



We are indebted to Cuarles L. Flnt, Esq., Sec- 

 retary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, 

 for a copy of his first annual report, together with 

 the reports of . Committees appointed to visit the 

 County Societies of the State. The document con- 

 tains 186 pages, and reflects credit upon its talented 

 and industrious author. It is mainly devoted to an 

 elaborate rcAaew of the past and present condition of 

 the agriculture of Massachusetts; and as such it will 

 be read with interest and profit, not only by the farm- 

 ers of that commonwealth, but by cultivators in other 

 States into whose hands it may chance to fall. 



Of all the crops, the cultivation of which is dis- 

 cussed in this report, no one is likely to be less under- 

 stood by our readers than that of the cranberiy; and 

 to this fruit the attention which we are now able to 

 bestow on Massachusetts farming, will be confined, 



Mr. Flixt says that the American cranberry is ex- 

 ported very largely to Europe, though it is not uni- 

 versally considered as eciual to the Russian. Its natu- 

 ral habitat extends from Canada to North Carolina, 

 and in the swamp districts along the great lakes and 

 rivers, indefinitely westwai'd, perhaps to the base of 

 the Rocky Mountains. 



At the request of the Secretary, Prof Horsford, 

 of Cambridge University, made an analysis of the 

 ash of the (Vuit of this ])lant, with the following re- 

 sult : The fruit has 88.75 per cent, of water ; and it 

 is therefore a very watery fruit, as those familiar with 

 cranberries will bear witness. The per cent, of ash is 

 small, being only .17 per cent, or about one-sixth of 

 one per cent, on the undried berries. Deducting 

 charcoal, sand and carbonic acid, the ash was found 

 to be compoaad of — 



Potasb, 50.7956 



Si)cl.a, 7507 



Chloride of sodium (common salt), 2..5619 



Lime, 12.1443 



Magne-sia, 8.2370 



Sesqui-oxide of iron, 1.2433 



Sesqui-oxide of manganese, tr.ace. 



.SuliiUunc acid, 4.2845 



Silicic acid, 5.7251 



Phosphoric acid, 14.2354 



100.0000 



To ti-ansform a wet swamp filled with bushes of no 

 value into a cranberry plantation, is a pretty expen- 



sive operation. On this part of the subject Mi-, 

 Flint makes the following remarks : 



" ]Many fields which I have seen, are thus arranged. 

 Swamps like those described, which have always been 

 considered as entirely incapable of improvement, have 

 beci^ reclaimed in many instances, with great lal)or, 

 and filled up with coarse, white beach sand, and often 

 when the swamp has been covered with water to the 

 depth of three or four feet. The plants have then 

 been set out in the manner desci-ibed, from one foot 

 to eighteen inches apart, in holes made in the sand by 

 a small stick, hoe or dibble, and sometimes with the 

 hand; a small cluster of roots taken from the sod in 

 which they had been taken from their natural posi- 

 tion, freed from grass and roots, being placed in each 

 hole. In such a situation there will always be mois- 

 ture enough for them. 



" The cost in these cases varies from f 100 to $400 

 per acre. Under the most favorable circumstances, 

 I have never known an acre prepared in this way to 

 fall below $125 ; and that, too, even where it has 

 been prepared in the most economical way, all the 

 labor being performed by the owner himself The 

 cost, in the situations described, including the origi- 

 nal preparation by paring, fencing, filling up with 

 sand, procuring and setting out the roots, has more 

 frequently been about $300 per acre. In many cases 

 within my knowledge, the owner has contracted to 

 pay at the rate of $1.87^ a square rod for preparing 

 the land and setting out the plants properly. In 

 somewhat more favorable situations, the contractor 

 pays $1.50 a rod, or at the rate of $240 per acre. 



" When the roots are thus transplanted, a foot or a 

 foot and a half being left between them, they are 

 expected to spread and entirely cover the ground with 

 vines in about three years. If the plantation is 

 troubled by grasses at first, the rapid growth of the 

 2)lants will generally destroy them in the course of 

 three or four years. In one of the most successful 

 cases which have come under my observation, where 

 the i^lants have been set about si.x years, the quan- 

 tity of grass and weeds was much less the last season 

 than the jireceding ; the vines produced abundantly, 

 and there seems to be every reason to suppose that 

 the canberries will very soon take full possession of 

 the ground. But if they are set sufficiently near, and 

 have a proper amount of labor bestowed upon them, 

 they will ordinarily, on sand, get an early hold of the 



ground and bid defiance to all opposition. 



******* 



" But in estimating the comparative profits of the 

 upland and lowland cultivation, it will be borne in 

 mind that the labor on the upland is gi'eater, and the 

 land more valuable for other purposes. The liability 

 to frosts is not, however, quite so great when the 

 cranberries are in blossom. There can be no doubt 

 that it will grow and do well on upland, and produce 

 too a superior fruit ; but it seems to prefer a poor, 

 sandy soil, full of moisture, such as can be best ob- 

 tained by improving swamps, wliich, unless used for 

 this pur])ose, are nearly worthless. Half an acre of 

 cranberries, on a veiy rich upland soil, has been esti- 

 mated by the owner to have cost him, after being set 

 four years, and including labor, interest of land, and 

 other expenses of cultivation, about $300, or at the 

 rate of nearly $600 to the acre ; whereas it has been 



