1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
263 
done, all those that show signs of suffering 
should be attended to at once. A timely mulch- 
ing may save the tree. It makes but little dif- 
ference, what material is used so that the soil 
around the tree is prevented from losing its 
moisture by evaporation. Stones, ifmost con- 
venient, will answer as well as anything. If the 
tree has an exposed trunk, it should be protect- 
ed from the intense heat A couple of boards 
tacked together like a trough, and set up against 
the trunk will furnish the required shade, or 
the trunk may be bound with a hay rope or 
be loosely strawed up as for winter protection. 
Where to Look for a Cranberry Bog. 
The large profits realized from the sale of 
cranberries for the last ten years, has led many 
to inquire for suitable lands for a plantation. 
It is by no means necessary to go to New Jer- 
sey, or to Cape Cod for this purpose. There is 
undoubtedly a larger amount of peat bogs and 
sand banks iu these sections than can be 
found in most places, but there, also, the value 
of the raw material is best appreciated, and the 
prices are correspondingly high. So far as 
climate is concerned, a peat bog in any of the 
shore towns from Maine to New Jersey is just 
as good as Cape Cod or Ocean county. The 
frosts are kept off by the sea air, and the land, 
if properly handled would be quite as produc- 
tive. Peat bogs in these localities which the 
cranberry fever has not visited are still cheap, 
say from ten to twenty dollars an acre, while on 
Cape Cod, they would be worth at least ten times 
that sum. To make a plantation a successful 
commercial enterprise, several tilings are to be 
considered. "We must have the three essential 
things — peat, sand or gravel, and capacity for 
flowage, or there is no assurance of success. A 
bog that does not have these requisites is not 
cheap at any price. Then, a bog, with every 
thing promising well, may be bought at such 
figures as to leave a small margin for profit. 
If the raw material costs three hundred dollars 
an acre, and the skinning, sanding, and planting 
cost live hundred more, the capital is eight hun- 
dred per acre, and one will have to wait three 
years, before he can expect to make much re- 
turn. The conditions are changed for the bet- 
ter when we can get equally good land for 
twenty dollars an acre, and the cost of prepara- 
tion is only two hundred. Such lands can be 
found in many of these shore towns, and the 
owners are willing to sell them because they 
are unproductive, and they have no faith in 
cranberries, or no capital to invest in such im- 
provements. Still further back from the shore 
for fifty miles or more, there are lands just as 
good, if the stream running through them is 
large enough to admit of sudden flowage to 
guard against the frosts of September. Some- 
times this can be secured by a reservoir, even 
where the stream that supplies it is small. But 
this reserve of water can only be had at an 
extra expense, and must be taken into accouut 
in making the investment. The cranberry in- 
terest is constantly increasing in the localities 
referred to, and large sums are annually ex- 
pended in grubbing old maple and cedar 
swamps, carting sand or gravel, and planting 
the vines. James A. Bill, of Lyme, Ct., is just 
finishing the sanding of thirty acres, at a cost of 
about twenty thousand dollars, when the plants 
are all in. Mr. Spencer, of Saybrook, near the 
Shore Line road, has about twenty acres, nearly 
covered with gravel, and the plants will be set 
this season. Dennis Tuttle, at Madison, has 
been at work upon a plantation several years, 
and his vines put out last year are coming on 
as finely as could be desired. The small planta- 
tion put out by Mr. Small a dozen years ago, 
though not so thorougly prepared as the later 
ones, still bears abundantly, and annually makes 
converts to the cranberry faith. A single acre 
of this plantation, one year, produced one hun- 
dred and sixty barrels of fruit, worth not far 
from $1,600. Tins successful enterprise has led 
many to drain their peat bogs, and make plan- 
tations in all the neighboring towns. There is 
still much land of this sort to be possessed, and 
the chief thing wanted is capital to develop it. 
The business is now pretty well understood by 
the gentlemen who have undertaken these im- 
provements. Skilled labor can be found to 
sand the land, and to set out the plants. There 
is no more risk in the investment than in or- 
dinary farming, and capital judiciously expend- 
ed brings a large reward. Men who wish to make 
investments in this kind of fruit culture, can 
hardly do better than to visit these plantations 
along the Connecticut shore. Connecticut. 
•-• ■■ » ■ — .-«. 
Seed Sowing in Dry Weather. 
Br PETER HENDERSON. 
I do not remember to have heard so many 
complaints of seeds coming up badly as have 
been made this year, in consequence of the con- 
tinued dry weather. Even those kinds of seeds 
that germinate most freely, such as cabbages, tur- 
nips, and beets, have been complained of, and 
celery plants particularly, will be scarce, iu con- 
sequence of the unusually dry May. Such, in 
many cases, have been the results when seeds 
have been treated in the ordinary way, and con- 
tinued drouth ensued ; but it is necessary that 
the gardener should always apply common 
sense to his work, and not simply follow rou- 
tine, for what will suit for one condition of soil 
or atmosphere, would be unnecessary or even 
wrong for another. I will give a case to illus- 
trate. About the fifth of May of this year, I 
sowed a large patch in the open ground with 
celery seed, and another with cabbage seed. The 
soii was iu fiue order, and the beds after sowing, 
were raked ; the celery with a fine steel rake, 
the cabbage with a large wooden rake, which 
covered the seed of each to the regular depth. 
The weather was dry, with indications of its 
continuing so, and after sowing I had both the 
cabbage and celery beds rolled heavily, leaving, 
however, a strip of each unrolled, so that I 
could clearly show to some of rny young men 
what the result of this omission would be if dry 
weather continued. Had a heavy rain fallen 
within a day or two after sowing, it would have 
compacted the soil, excluding the air from the 
seed — in fact, producing the effect of rolling it. 
But we had no rain for three or four weeks, and 
a burning-hot atmosphere, passing through the 
shallow, loose covering of the seeds, shrivelled 
and dried them up so that it was impossible 
they could ever germinate. This little experi- 
ment resulted exactly as any one having expe- 
rience iu seed-sowing knew it must ; our crop of 
celery aud cabbage plants were as fine as need 
be on the rolled bed, while not one seed in a 
thousand of the celery, and not one in a hun- 
dred of the cabbage started iu the strips left 
loose. The season for sowing turnip seed is at 
hand, and the same care is more likely to be 
necessary now than in May, for July and August 
are always hot and often dry months, and it is 
imperative that seeds be closely covered so that 
the dry, hot air is as far as practicable kept from 
them. Iu the sowing of cauliflower, cabbage, 
or lettuce in September, the same precaution 
had better be used. But in small beds, such as 
are usually taken for these, if a roller is not at 
hand, after raking the beds, the soil should be 
firmly patted with the back of a spade; this not 
only produces quicker and more certain ger- 
mination, but it leaves the surface of the bed 
smooth, so that the plants come up straighter 
than if the beds were left rough. "We consider 
the practice of soaking seeds before sowing 
worse than useless. 
m I ■« » >-m 
Summer Layering. 
To the amateur who has not the facilities for 
propagating plants in any other manner, lay- 
ering is the simplest method of multiplying his 
shrubs and vines. It is not sufficiently expe- 
ditious for the nurseryman, and it is too waste- 
ful of material, as he could make a dozen plants 
from cuttings of the material required to make 
one layer. In private gardens, we wish to in- 
crease the stock moderately, either to obtain a 
few plants for our own use, or to present to 
friends, aud to do this, layering answers admi- 
rably. Even the nurseryman is obliged to re- 
sort to this method with plants that cannot be 
propagated iu any other way. The operation 
is of the simplest. We have only to bend down 
a shoot and bury a portion in the earth, and in 
most cases it will be found well rooted by au- 
tumn, and it may be severed from the parent 
plant, and removed at that time, or be left until 
the following spring. There are a few points 
necessary to be observed. The wood of the 
shoot should be partially ripened or hardened, 
before it is layered. In most cases the rooting 
is much facilitated by cutting a tongue in the 
portion to be layered. This tongue should be 
made upon the upper side of the stem. It is 
simply a cut from below upwards, an inch or 
two long, and extending about half way through 
the stem. In bending the shoot down, care 
must be taken not to break it at the cut point. 
The soil should be mellow and rich, aud a lit- 
tle trench being opened, the shoot, including 
the cut portion, laid in it, and fastened down 
with a hooked peg. The earth is then replaced 
and pressed down firmly, and the upper end of 
the shoot, which projects above ground, is to 
be tied up to a stake; this will give a better 
shape to the new plant than if it were allowed 
to take a reclined position. Want of success iu 
summer layering is due to the ground around 
the layer becoming too dry to allow the forma- 
tion of roots. This may be remedied by plac- 
ing a mulch of moss or other material, over the 
surface. A flat stone laid upon the soil over 
the layer answers an admirable purpose. 
*-. ^mm* >-* 
The New Remedy for the Peach-Borer. 
— Mr. M. B. Bateham, of Painesville, O., writes 
as follows : " Since the publication of my article 
in the April number of the American. Agricul- 
turist, I have received several letters asking for 
more particulars respecting the use of carbolic 
soap as a remedy for the peach-borer. A cor- 
respondent in Southern Tennessee wishes to 
know the capacity of a " barrel," or how many 
gallons of water I use for five pounds of soap. 
My answer is, about thirty gallons — a little 
more or less is not material. But for small or 
young trees, the strength of the liquid should 
not be so great, as it might flow down and in- 
jure small roots. I would say eight or ten gal- 
lons of water to a pound of the soap. For 
bearing trees, 5 or 6 years planted, I have dis- 
