1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



6T 



that many who prize it so highly have never seen 

 or tasted thereat high-bush blackberry ? I ought to 

 add, perhaps, that my berries were raised on land 

 which has produced eighty bushels to the acre, 

 good sound shelled corn, and that seedlings from 

 the wild blackberry within a few rods of them 

 have stood the winter perfectly. 



The Dorchester I have never tasted, but the 

 general appearance of the fruit, as I have seen it 

 in your city, is like the high-bush, except that it 

 is not so long as most of the wild berries. 



The blackberry, when in perfection, is a most 

 delicious fruit for the dessert and for pies, and by 

 the aid of preserving cans, may be had all the year ; 

 its introduction to the fruit garden is, however, 

 quite recent, and the cultivated varieties are con- 

 sequently few in number. I would suggest that 

 those who live in districts where this fruit grows 

 in abundance and perfection, would do well to 

 mark those bushes which produce most abundantly 

 of the largest sized and best flavored fruit, and at 

 the proper time transplant them to their gardens. 

 By a little attention to the time of ripening, too, 

 varieties might be obtained which would yield us 

 an abundance of this most wholesome fruit, from 

 the usual raspberry season vuitil the weather be- 

 comes too cold for them to ripen. 



Ashfield, Bee. 19, 1859. Wm. F. Bassett, 



FLOliVAa-ES. 



The committee appointed by the last Legisla- 

 ture to inquire into the causes of the flowage and 

 destruction of lands in the valley of the Concord 

 and Sudbury rivers, recently had another hearing 

 at the State House, which continued several days. 

 The counsel for the Petitioners present, were 

 Judge Mellen, Judge H. F. French and D. L. 

 Child, Esq. For the Respondents, Judge Ab- 

 bott, B. F. BuTLEK, Esq., and Messrs. Somerby 

 and Preston. The questions at issue in this 

 hearing are questions of grave importance to the 

 farmers of the Commonwealth, as they are, virtu- 

 ally, whether their lands shall be taken from them, 

 and devoted to other purposes than those of agri- 

 culture, contrary to their will, and without leaving 

 them any remedy or means of redress. Such, we 

 understand, is the condition in which this vast 

 tract of land now lies — wrested from the occupa- 

 tion of.its owners by the gradual encroachments 

 of water, under the sanction of laws, perhaps, 

 passed in an age when manufactures were deemed 

 of more importance than raw agricultural pro- 

 ducts, and what is worse than all, passed Avithout 

 giving the person whose lands were destroyed any 

 reasonable remedy for the injury inflicted upon 

 him. 



This land lies in one of the most fertile and 

 beautiful of our New England valleys, and is 

 skirted with what were once rich and verdant pas- 

 tures, and thrifty forests of valuable fuel and 

 timber. Chilled Avith the accumulation of cold 

 water that is backed up by the flooded meadows, 

 these pastures are covered with innutritious wa- 



ter grasses and other worthless plants, while the 

 trees that once stood clothed in thrifty verdure 

 at their bases, are now stunted in their growth, 

 and hung with gloomy lichens and mosses, the 

 fitting funereal drapery of their dead or dying 

 condition. 



If this land were remote from railroads, or in- 

 accessible to large village-s and towns, its destruc- 

 tion would be comparatively unimportant. But 

 such is not the fact. It lies in the very heart of 

 the most dense population of New England. Nu- 

 merous county roads of the best character trav- 

 erse its outlines arnd cross it in every direction ; 

 railroads pass over it and skirt its borders, while 

 the best markets in the country surround it on 

 every side, so that from its centre to its circum- 

 ference the products of this once fertile valley can 

 be brought to a ready market within the space of 

 six hours ! 



Formerly the river that flows through this land 

 teemed with fish that periodically came up from 

 the ocean, and thus formed an important article 

 of food to the people. Blue-joint, red-top and 

 other rich grasses covered the meadows, upon 

 which the farmer mainly depended for the winter 

 feed of his cattle, so that the English or high 

 land grasses could be spared for market, in order 

 to raise cash for the payment of taxes, ancl articles 

 for family use, which could not be produced upon 

 the farm. Thousands of dollars were also annu- 

 ally received for cranberries which grew in spon- 

 taneous luxuriance upon these meadows, which, 

 added to the fish in the river and the grass grow- 

 ing upon its banks, gave these lands a value 

 equal to the best uplands of the farm. 



Under the present, influence of water upon 

 them, these meadows are gi-adually becoming a 

 vast tract of pestilential swamp. Those that would 

 command $75 per acre forty years ago, cannot be 

 sold at any price now, — their possession being 

 considered a curse, instead of a blessing. Hun- 

 dreds of tons of hay — poor in quality now — rot 

 upon their surface annually, while the miasma and 

 pestiferous vapors arising from such vast quanti- 

 tities of decomposing vegetable matter, together 

 with their inability to cultivate or in any waj' im- 

 prove the soil, has driven families from their 

 homesteads to seek a living in more favored re- 

 gions. Dwellings which Avere once the abodes of 

 thrift and competence, now stand as gloomy mon- 

 uments of the fatal march of the invader ; no feet 

 go in and out at their doors, as they were wont ; 

 no hopeful industry scatters the seed, nor grateful 

 hearts beat over an ingathering harvest ; no smoke 

 curls from their chimneys, no herds low on the 

 hills or feed in the stalls where once they sought 

 their accustomed food ! The land lias become a 

 prey to suffering, disease and death, through th© 

 mistaken legislation of a former age t 



