310 



NEW ENGLAND FARIHER. 



July 



ner with small means. I therefore propose to give 

 a short account of my operations and success in 

 raising this fruit. ♦ 



I commenced in 1843 by ditching just to take off 

 the water from a swamp of seven or eight acres 

 from which I had cut a good growth of wood and 

 timber, and built a dam to flow the same at $25, 

 on contract, and left it for three years, supposing 

 the water would kill the bushes and all green veg- 

 etation. But the water was so shallow that it 

 evaporated in summer so as to show the ground, 

 and the brakes and bushes Uved through the flood- 

 ing. In August, 1846, I drained off the water and 

 in October cleared up the brush and Ijurncd it, and 

 set about one acre to vines, in bunches aI)out the 

 size of a quart measure, cut from beds with a hoe, 

 three feet apart, by chance. 



I found a few patches of natural vines which 

 gi'ew finely after the flooding and bore well. 



I had nothing to call a crop till 18o0, when I had 

 about twenty bushels. They increased to fifty 

 barrels in 18o5, and bi-ought ^13 per barrel. Since 

 then they have increased, but are now on the de- 

 cline. They have had no cultivation except mow- 

 ing over the vines to top the grass and Inishes. 



On another small swamp, with a low place near- 

 ly round it — the centre higher — with a thick bed of 

 peat partly decomposed, I cut the bushes, covered 

 the stubs with water one summer, cleared the 

 bushes and burnt them, and set the vines eighteen 

 inches apart ; the vines to set were pulled up by 

 the roots. I don't get a crop as soon as some rep- 

 resent, l)ut this has given beautiful crops. 



A pond-hole of from one-half to three-fourths of 

 an acre which held water so late in summer that 

 no tree, bush or grass grew in it, had six inches of 

 rich, black mould, then four or five inches of a clay- 

 ey substance, then pure white sand. 



I ditched and set vines in it, it being near my 

 house. They were set at odd times, and almost 

 all times of the year, except when the ground was 

 frozen. Some of them have not come to maturity 

 and bear but few berries. It has been kept clear 

 of weeds of all kinds. In ISfio I gathered lo3 

 bushels, heaped measure, and three bushels, three 

 pecks and six quarts from one square rod! 



One of my neighbors who has gone into the 

 business says it is as easy to raise cranberry vines 

 as witch-grass. I know a meadow of three acres, 

 topped at two shillings per rod, which for want of 

 three inches of sand, has come up to gi'ass — appa- 

 rently from seed, — thick enough for a full crop, and 

 is now a meadow of grass and vines ; the vines 

 have been growing eight or nine years. Last year 

 they gathered about thirty bushels, the best crop 

 they have had. My best crop, 113 Inishels, was in 

 1865. A Subscriber of the Farmer. 



Remarks. — We are greatly obliged to our cor- 

 respondent for the above account. Several years 

 ago we visited his cranberry meadows and found 

 some of the best examples in cranberry culture 

 that we have ever seen. His statements are relia- 

 ablc. He is now quite advanced in life, and we 

 suppose withholds his name, because he would be 

 scarcely able to answer inquiries addressed tohim 

 on the subject. In a small quantity, which he 

 once sent us, we easily selected twelve berries, 

 which, laid end to end, measured full twelve inch- 

 es in length. They were of the bugle variety. 



GRAPE TRELLIS — TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS. 



I have been a constant reader of the New Eng- 

 land Farmer for thirteen years, and have the 

 numbers on file. They form a complete agricul- 

 tural library, which, for cheapness and real value, 



cannot be excelled. Reading them is like visiting 

 the farmers of New England and conversing with 

 them upon all sulijects connected with our profes- 

 sion. It is very interesting to look over the mar- 

 ket i-eports and compare past and present prices. 

 As there is much said about grapes at this time, I 

 will give you my plan for a trellis. I .^et some 

 good posts, about six feet high, then take some 

 plank twelve feet long and six inches wide, spike 

 one end to the top of the posts, letting the other 

 rest on the gi-ound, then nail slats across the plank 

 and you will have an excellent trellis, which will 

 support the vines much better than an upright one. 

 The vines can be covered in winter without taking 

 them down, which is very injurious. 



I wish to inquire, through the Farmer, the best 

 time and method of setting cedar and other ever- 

 greens, c. 



Washington Co., Vt., May, 1867. 



Remarks. — The latter part of May and June 

 are favorable months for transplanting evergreens. 

 Just as the buds are swelling to burst is said by 

 some to be just the nick of time. But, whenever 

 transplanted, rememljer that a tree out of the earth 

 should be treated much like a fish out of water. 

 To as little air as possible, and to no sunshine at 

 all should the roots of evergreens be exposed. 

 Remove them in a rainy day, if you don't like to 

 work nights and mornings. 



RAISING POTATOES, IN VERMONT. 



Lest you, Mr. Editor, and others remote from 

 the Green Mountains, should think that all Ver- 

 mont farmers raise potatoes as Brother Simonds 

 tells you, in your issue of May 4, that he does, I 

 want to say, point blank, it isn't so. His is the 

 identical method my father and his neighbors used 

 when I was a boy of eight years old, and which 

 was continued through my minority. 



I am now about to turn the maiden lady's sec- 

 ond corner, — sixty — and my present method is to 

 spread in the spring from thirty-five to forty-five 

 ox-cart loads of green manure on an acre of mow- 

 ing land, that needs improving from less than a 

 ton to over two tons product of hay. Take a large 

 douljle swivel plough. No. 85, I obtained some ten 

 years since of R,uggles, Nourse & Mason, two 

 yoke of oxen, and plough the ground from nine to 

 ten inches deep. Next spread on a moderate coat 

 of well rotted manure, and harrow it in well, — the 

 rough furrow of the double swivel plough, facili- 

 tating its commingling with the soil. Plant rows 

 thi-ee feet apart, hills ft-om fifteen to eighteen 

 inches, with from three to five eyes of the Califor- 

 nia seed, near the top of the ground. In hoeing, 

 hill up slightly, though it is with a vengeance we 

 keep the weeds where they should be, for the more 

 manure the more weeds. Crop, three Imndred 

 bushels ; a profitable cattle feed. We raise table 

 potatoes after the same process, but none for the 

 market as we live twelve miles from a depot. 

 Seed to grass the next year — the more of the grass 

 seeds the better, — but in connection with a thin 

 crop of wheat or oats, keeping the land up only 

 two years. 



We also plough and manure in the same way, 

 seeding down to grass in connection with a thin 

 grain crop the first year, keeping it up only one 

 year, and find it tends much to the enlargement of 

 the hay mow. 



Some of my neighbors planted corn and pota- 

 toes last year, after Brother Simonds' practice, on 

 oat stubble, and had both entirely destroyed by 

 the pestiferous wire woriii. Other fields planted 

 on what we tennthe "sward," escaped unmolested. 



We have wintered this season eigiity-eight head 



