70 Tlve Western Pomologist and Gardener. 1872 



to give satisfaction, where the gardener can procure brush to sticlc them, and give 

 plenty of space between the rows. 



Black - Eyed Marrow. — Is a very prolific, large podded variety, much used by market 

 gardeners, on account of its cheapness. 



In making these selections, it has been my aim to name such varieties onlj' as have been 

 thoroughly tested, and such as cannot fail to reward the cultivator. 



There are many new and good varieties, appearing from year to year that should be 

 tested by American gardeners, until they either receive or reject, as their merits may 

 decide. — Selected. 



Cranberrr^ Cnltare la Wisconsin.'^ 



J. S. Stickney, President of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society, in his address 

 before the Society, February 7th, 1873, thus alluded to the cranberry interest of the State : 



" For commercial value I consider our cranberry fields as equal to any fruit interest in 

 our country. Peach or grape culture, for commercial purposes, as compared with cran- 

 berries, is disappointing and unsatisfactory. Being so perishable, they must be hurriedly 

 and wastefully marketed, and a day of delay or unfavorable weather often causes heavy 

 loss ; while the cranberries can be barreled and leisurely transported thousands of miles 

 away to the most favorable market. Increased value is given to these fields from the fact 

 that they are so limited as compared with the area to be supplied with fruit, thus making 

 a ready market and good prices always a certainty. About this there is now nothing 

 problematical or uncertain. Fields properly improved, so as to flow and drain at will, 

 have for many years yielded good annual crops. Ten to twelve hundred barrels from 

 forty acres, is no unusual yield, and sometimes as high as two hundred bushels are gath- 

 ered from a single acre. Of such lands we have thousands of acres, much of it easily 

 accessible by railroads; most of it unimproved and waiting for purchasers. How long 

 can we afford to leave such resources as these undeveloped? How long will individual 

 enterprise neglect to grasp such golden opportunities ? Give this interest ten years of 

 such enthusiastic efforts as have been given to the fruit district of southern Illinois, or the 

 peach belt of Michigan, and what would be the result ? Can any thinking man doubt that 

 our exports would double, yea, quadruple the exports of either of these districts ?" 



FoBciNG. — This may be defined the artificial production of fruits and vegetables, at an 

 advanced or early period in the season. Upon forcing depend the great labors of the 

 gardener, who cannot compete in the markets nor be a successful cultivator, unless he 

 manage to extend the season by anticipating the natural period of the climate in which 

 he is placed. Very much may be done in this way, with very simple apparatus, especially 

 in the vegetable department. 



'What a Leaf Does. 



The Bible says " We all do fade as a leaf," but the following makes it very plain that if 

 we all work " as a leaf" we serve our time pretty well, and need feel in no wise ashamed 

 to be compared to that we bit of organized nature. What can be more interesting than 

 this description of what a leaf does ? 



It pumps water from the ground through the thousands of tubes in the stem of the tree, 

 and sends it to the atmosphere in the form of unseen mist, to be condensed and fall in 

 showers, the very water that, were it not for the leaf, would sink in the earth and find its 

 way, perchance, through the subteranean channels to the sea. 



And thus it is thnt we see it works to give us the " early and the latter rain." It worksto 

 send the little rills and streams, like lines of silver down the mountain and the plain. It 

 works to pour down the larger brooks which turns the wheels that energize the machin- 

 ery which gives employment to millions — commerce stimulated, wealth accumulated and 

 intelligence disseminated through the agency of this wealth. The leaf does it all. 



