January .7, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



acorns were found to be in a good state of preservation and 

 when planted germinated successfully. 



Mr. Ellis remarks that the above methods may suffice for 

 carrying seeds to and from the East Indies, but that they have 

 not been sufficiently tested for larger voyages, and, therefore, 

 recommends "to the curious" the following method con- 

 trived by Linnaeus, " which has been tried," and, Linnaeus 

 affirms, "has never failed " : 



"Put the seeds in a cylindrical glass bottle, fill the inter- 

 stices with dry sand to prevent their lying too close together 

 and that they may perspire freely through the sand ; then cork 

 the bottle, or tie a bladder over its mouth. Then take a glass 

 vessel so much larger than the one containing the seeds that 

 when the latter is suspended in it there may be a vacant space 

 on all sides of two inches between the two glasses, which 

 must be filled with four-fifths of nitre and one-fifth of equal 

 parts of common salt and sal-ammoniac, well pounded and 

 mixed together. This saline mass, which should be rather 

 moist, will always be so cold that the seeds in the inner glass 

 will never suffer during their voyage from the heat of the sun." 



Mr. Ellis concludes with these judicious words: "Perhaps 

 Dr. Linnaeus' method will answer the end. I think it worth 

 the trial, especially as he assures us it never fails." To this 

 the editor comments with some warmth : "This seems to be 

 an insinuation to the prejudice of Linnaeus' character, the 

 publication of which the reader will the less approve when 

 told that this very method was communicated by Linnaeus in a 

 letter to Mr. Ellis in consequence of Mr. Ellis having applied 

 by letter to him for information on this subject." 

 Washington, d. c. George B. Sudworth. 



Cranberries in Wisconsin. 



IN former issues we have given at some length accounts 

 of the Cranberry as it is cultivated in the bogs of 

 Cape Cod and New Jersey. The following article on the 

 Cranberry in Wisconsin was prepared by Professor Goff 

 and published in a recent number of the Farmer's Revieiv : 



In several central counties of Wisconsin are extensive 

 marshes, in which the Cranberry - plant is indigenous. 

 From time immemorial the Indians of the country have 

 feasted upon this grateful fruit in its season, and from the 

 first settlement of those regions, farmers, lumbermen and 

 others, at least in productive years, gathered their full winter's 

 supply of cranberries from the spontaneous harvests. But 

 not until the railway had penetrated these wilds did any 

 quantity of the fruit ever reach an outside market, or were the 

 rudest attempts made at improving the marshes, or at intro- 

 ducing the most primitive culture. The crop borne, bountiful 

 in some seasons and very scanty in others, was entirely at the 

 mercy of the elements. When these were favorable the un- 

 gathered harvest returned to the soil that gave it by the 

 thousand bushels. But fire or drought or untimely frosts 

 often so far cut off the yield that only the leisurely Indian found 

 time or patience to avail himself of it. It is scarcely more 

 than twenty years since the first systematic attempts were 

 made at improving these extensive marshes, or at gathering 

 the fruit on a commercial scale. A few years previous to 1870 

 interest began to be awakened in Cranberry-culture in the 

 vicinity of Berlin, in the eastern part of the state, and the more 

 available tracts of Cranberry-land began to be improved in a 

 primitive way by clearing out brush and fallen trees and exca- 

 vating ditches for the better control of the water. A few 

 years later (about 1873) railroads were extended eastward and 

 west across the central part of the state, which opened up 

 hundreds of square miles of native Cranberry-marshes. The 

 success that had been attained in the neighborhood of Berlin 

 gave a stimulus to the industry in this new field, and soon 

 capital and enterprise began to be attracted there. 



From that time to the present the business has shown a 

 gradual, but tolerably steady advance, both in the area culti- 

 vated and in the methods, until at last the output of cranberries 

 in the average season amounts to about 5,000 barrels. The 

 greater part of this aggregate, however, is as yet gathered 

 from wholly unimproved marshes. How long this increase 

 will continue it is impossible to estimate. The market for 

 cranberries may be considered as almost unlimited, and if all 

 the Wisconsin marshes were available for improvement the 

 present annual product might be multiplied by thousands. But 

 while one may in places ramble ten miles in a straight line 

 over continuous native Cranberry marshes, the conditions are 

 such that only the areas lying near the railroads can be profit- 

 ably improved. Owing to the quaggy nature of the soil of the 

 marshes horses are scarcely available either for traffic or 



labor, and it will only be after the construction of costly roads 

 that the marshes located at a distance from the railways can 

 be utilized. At present the locations adjoining the railroads 

 that are fortunately situated as regards water supply are for 

 the most part in a fair state of improvement. 



The methods of culture practiced in Wisconsin are of a 

 much more primitive kind than those in use at Cape Cod and 

 in New Jersey. Very few of the Wisconsin marshes that are 

 considered improved have ever been systematically planted. 

 The "improvements" consist simply in clearing out foreign 

 rubbish and in ditching the ground, so that the water may be 

 under some system of control. Very few of the marshes have 

 conveniences for flooding at pleasure, and the number that 

 have been " turfed " and systematically planted is perhaps still 

 smaller. The "turfing" consists in breaking up the tough 

 sod of the marshes at a dry time, and piling the turf into heaps 

 for burning. This destroys most of the native plants that 

 interfere with the growth of the Cranberry-shrub, and leaves 

 the ground in a smooth condition for planting. The process 

 of sanding the marshes, so common in the east, has scarcely 

 been attempted in Wisconsin. Sand is rarely sufficiently avail- 

 able in the marshes to make the expense warrantable, and it 

 is, indeed, a question if much would be gained by the pro- 

 cess. The comparatively few Cranberry-beds that have been 

 planted in Wisconsin have been set with the native plants of 

 the locality. Little attention has as yet been paid to varieties. 

 In the Berlin district a very large and fine bugle-shaped 

 variety is native and has been considerably planted in that part 

 of the state. In the marshes situated in the more western dis- 

 tricts this variety abounds to some extent, but is so much 

 mixed with others as to render the separation of the plants a 

 difficult task. I was informed by persons who are familiar 

 with the Cape Cod and New Jersey marshes that nearly all the 

 varieties grown there are to be found wild in Wisconsin. 



It cannot be denied that the northern latitude and the con- 

 sequent danger of early frosts is a drawback to Cranberry cul- 

 ture in Wisconsin. But experience shows that this drawback 

 is by no means fatal to success. In the more improved 

 marshes, where the ground is kept free from grass, and so 

 becomes, to some extent, warmed by the sun, frosts are found 

 to be less injurious than in the wild ones. Where the marshes 

 can be promptly flooded, injury from frosts may be effec- 

 tually prevented, and some of the other means that have 

 been tried to prevent frost injuries promise good results. 

 One of these, used the past season on the extensive marshes 

 of Messrs. S. & A. S. Mills, at Millsonia, Monroe County, is 

 especially promising and worthy of being described in detail. 

 The hay that is cut during the summer upon the embank- 

 ments along the ditches is left in small piles, where it partially 

 dries and partially decays. By the time the frosty season 

 arrives this hay is in just the condition to burn gradually, with 

 a great deal of smoke and vapor. But the use of smoke as a 

 preventive of frost is by no means new. The part that is 

 original with the Messrs. Mills is the means used to compel 

 the smoke to drift over the marshes instead of being wafted 

 away by the breezes, as so often happens where this method 

 is tried. A large number of campaign torches are set up at 

 distances of a few yards from each other throughout the, cen- 

 tral part of the marsh, and as the wet-bulb thermometer gives 

 its frost warning, the grass piles and the torches are lighted 

 simultaneously. The heat generated by the torches is soon 

 sufficient to start an upward current of air at the centre of the 

 marsh, which immediately causes an -inward counter current 

 at the surface of the ground. This wafts the smoke, steam 

 and warmed air from the grass-fires around the borders of the 

 marsh inward toward its centre, and the result is that the 

 marsh is hovered over by something of the nature of a thin 

 summer cloud. 



While it cannot be claimed that this method of protection 

 from frost has been sufficiently tested, it was used the past 

 autumn on the marshes of the Messrs. Mills with apparently 

 complete success. The torches possess one important 

 advantage over the other means that have been proposed for 

 preventing frost by means of fire, viz., they can be used amid 

 growing crops without in the least endangering them. If it 

 must be confessed that the methods of the Wisconsin Cran- 

 berry-growers are somewhat of the slipshod order as com- 

 pared with the more prim and expensive practice of the 

 Eastern fraternity, it must be admitted that the growers them- 

 selves are not lacking in enterprise when the main question 

 is at stake. They have a wide-awake State Association which 

 holds its annual meeting in August to form estimates of the 

 yield and agree upon a schedule of prices. To show that 

 these estimates are more than haphazard guesses, I mention 

 that in the scant cranberry-crop of 1889, the total estimates, 



