AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
- 0S 
WESTERN APPLES. 
In an article referring to local fruits a short 
time since, we recommended their adoption in 
preference to others not so well known, by all 
who are about to plant new orchards. Our 
opinions were strongly confirmed a few weeks 
since while in the Miami and White-water Valley 
of Ohio, and Indiana. The wide reach of land 
embraced in these vallies, or rather the tract of 
champain country through which the waters of 
those rivers flow, is a rich limestone soil, intermix¬ 
ed more or less with a friable clay, and underlaid 
with a coarse limestone gravel, easy to till, and 
of wonderful fertility. In the early days of 
March, a basket of several different varieties of 
apples were presented us for inspection and 
taste. They were in good keeping, and the fol¬ 
lowing are the notes which we made at the 
time: 
Yellow Bellflower. —We have never seen this 
fine apple in such high perfection of size, beauty, 
and flavor as in this region. It is decidedly the 
late autumn and winter apple of all that broad 
region, both for the table and cooking. It is 
slightly sub-acid in flavor, crisp, and juicy in 
flesh. The color is a golden ground, with a 
beautiful carmine cheek, which, with its large 
size, makes it the perfection of an apple in ap¬ 
pearance. 
Bawles Jennet , or Never Fail. —This is pecu¬ 
liarly a Western apple. Medium in size, with a 
greenish, yellow ground, and broad, broken red 
stripes plashed over it. The flesh is white, 
juicy, crisp, slightly sub-acid, yet mild, and very 
agreeable in flavor. It is pippin shaped, and a 
good keeper. 
Wine Sap. —In size, medium; deep red all 
over in color; pearmain shape; flesh yellow, 
sub-acid; juicy, mild, and pleasant in flavor. 
Stem short and thick; good keeper. 
Black Apple. —Deep red in color, with small 
gray dots, full at the stem, and blossom ends ; 
yellow, rich, and rather dry flesh; mild and 
sub-acid. Hardly equal to the Wine Sap. 
Newtown Pippin. —This is a truly magnifi¬ 
cent apple, double the size of the Long Island 
Pippin, in some instances quite equal to the 
Fall Pippin about New-York. It thrives suc¬ 
cessfully in that region, and is the highest fla¬ 
vored of either of the apples we tasted, main¬ 
taining the prominent characteristics of its pa¬ 
rent at home in its peculiar ribbed shape, crisped 
flesh, and sprightly, juicy, delicious flavor; but 
these latter qualities somewhat diluted. This 
last characteristic somewhat appertains to all 
high flavored Eastern fruits which succeed at 
the West, owing probably to their larger growth 
and longer season. 
Coarseness, and sometimes sponginess, or 
want of solidity, is a characteristic which the 
northern and eastern pomologist readily detects 
in western fruits, most usually accompanied by 
a dilution of flavor, particularly in such apples 
as he is accustomed to at home. We cannot 
too strongly recommend to our western friends, 
in all their fruit plantations, to hold on to the 
well established fruits of their own region for 
their main purposes, instead of experimenting 
to any extent on fruits from abroad, let their 
reputation be ever so inviting, provided, mean¬ 
time, that their own fruits possess the qualities 
for which they are required. 
THE CRANBERRY. 
Concluded from page 38. 
Since these varieties are not permanent, it 
follows that there is no certainty that the seed 
will produce a plant which will be similar to 
that from which the seed was taken. We can¬ 
not depend upon having a Baldwin apple from 
the seed of the Baldwin. The product may, in¬ 
deed, be superior to its parent, or it may be in¬ 
ferior, but it will seldom be precisely similar to 
it. The seed of the black cranberry might pro¬ 
duce the black, as it sometimes does. The 
same circumstances which gave such peculiar 
characteristics to the fruit from which the seed 
was taken, would probably give it the same. It 
is always safe and wise to select the best seed of 
the best fruit, of every description, to plant. 
The question has often been asked, whether 
the two varieties, when brought together, would 
injure each other, or in other words, whether, 
if the black and the common oblong cranberry 
of the country, were transplanted into the same 
piece, and placed in the immediate vicinity of 
each other, the fruit of each would have all its 
original distinctive characteristics? If both va¬ 
rieties of vines ran together, as they naturally 
would, so that the dust or pollen of one would 
fall on and fructify the other, it is very probable 
that the fruit would have some of the character¬ 
istics of each variety. The inferior cranberry 
would, perhaps, be improved, and it is possible 
that the fruit so produced might be better than 
either alone would have been. Such is, to a 
great extent, the case with all accidental varie¬ 
ties of fruit; as when a variety of Indian corn, 
for example, is so situated that its pollen falls 
upon other varieties of the same grain, the ef¬ 
fects arc invariably seen in the different charac¬ 
ter given to the fruit of that on which it falls. 
But, if our common American cranberry were 
intermixed with the small, or European cran¬ 
berry, in the manner above described, the same 
amalgamation probably would not take place, 
from the fact that the species is different. There 
might possibly be an intermixture, but it would 
be very unlikely to occur. 
The Cranberry Worm. —There is an insect 
which attacks the cranberry. Its history and 
habits arc not yet fully known, though the sub¬ 
ject is now studied so closely that they will 
probably soon be determined. The egg is sup¬ 
posed to be deposited in' the blossom. From 
this egg proceeds a small caterpillar, which 
works its way through the fruit, eating the pulp 
and causing the green fruit to turn red prema¬ 
turely and decay. It bears a striking resem¬ 
blance to the apple-worm, and seems to be 
very much like it in its habits. This similarity 
has been observed by Dr. T. W. Harris, as ap¬ 
pears by a letter from which the following ex¬ 
tract is taken: 
“ Within the past two or three years, some 
complaint has been made of injury done to 
cranberries by insects. A sample of the injured 
fruit was put into my hands by the editor of 
one of our agricultural newspapers. The in¬ 
sects found therein were small, naked caterpil¬ 
lars, strikingly like those called apple-worms, or 
core-worms. Their habits seemed to be identi¬ 
cal with those of these common depredators. 
Each of the affected cranberries had been ten¬ 
anted by a single worm, which had entered, 
when very small, and had devoured more or less 
of the pulp, filling its path with its blackish ex¬ 
crements. Not having traced this insect to its 
final state, I cannot positively assert that it is 
the same species as that which affects the ap¬ 
ple ; but if not the same, it is probably congen¬ 
erical or closely allied thereto. I am not ac¬ 
quainted with any other insect attacking the 
cranberry.” 
Others have observed a striking resemblance 
of the appearance and sensitive nature of this 
insect to the Palmer worm. 
Two different remedies have been adopted for 
this evil. One is to flow the cranberry ground 
one whole year, thus losing the crop of one 
season, and the other is to sow salt upon the 
cranberry bed, at the rate of about five or six 
bushels to the acre. On plantations which can¬ 
not be flowed, the latter will probably bo found 
to be the only effectual remedy. If what has 
been observed be true, that cranberries growing 
on or near a salt marsh are superior to any oth¬ 
ers, it is also natural to suppose this application 
of salt would be beneficial to the cranberries, 
even if it did not destroy, or prevent the rava¬ 
ges of this insect. 
Mode of Gathering. —In this country, the 
cranberry is generally gathered with a rake 
made for the purpose, with which twenty or 
thirty bushels a day can be taken from the 
vines. But on newly planted beds, or loose 
sand, there may be danger that this method will 
injure the roots, and it will not be found expe¬ 
dient, in such cases, to use the rake till the 
plants are very firmly rooted, and have covered 
the ground. But raking, in the majority of 
cases, so far from injuring the vines, is probably 
a benefit to them, when no other cultivation is 
practicable. In Germany, the small cranberry 
is gathered by means of wooden combs. In 
England and Scotland, where they are not found 
in so great abundance, they are generally picked 
by hand. 
If I have dwelt longer on this subject than its 
comparative importance would seem to justify, 
it need only be stated that the cultivation of 
cranberries is fast becoming an important branch 
of our agriculture, more than one hundred thou¬ 
sand bushels of this valuable fruit having been 
gathered during the past season, from land 
which, for all other purposes, would have been 
comparatively worthless, while the demand for 
it here and in England is sufficiently large to 
absorb all that can be thrown into the mar¬ 
ket ;—that the information on this subject was 
much scattered and inaccessible to many, and 
that great facilities were at my command for ex¬ 
tensive and accurate observation of experiments, 
many of which had been tried so long that I 
could state conclusions resting on them, with 
some degree of confidence. 
But, as I have before intimated, some ques¬ 
tions relating to the culture of this plant, are 
still to be settled by experiment, and it is pos¬ 
sible that time and future observation may re¬ 
quire some modification of the opinions which 
have been advanced above.— C. L. Flint’s First 
Annual Report to Massachusetts Board of Ag¬ 
riculture. 
THE JEFFERSON PLUM. 
Turner's Florist of London for February, 
1854, says of this Plum: 
This exquisite new American Plum, which 
came into notice a short time ago, proves to be 
a great acquisition ; it is decidedly the best of its 
class, and fully merits the high character which 
accompanied its introduction. It has the ad¬ 
vantage of large size with beauty and excellence 
combined, together with a fruitful habit, and all 
the hardiness of our common kind. 
GOD HATH A VOICE. 
BY ELIZA COOK. 
God hath a voice that ia ever heard, 
In the peal of the thunder, the chirp of the bird ; 
It comes in the torrent, all rapid and strong, 
In the streamlet’s soft gush as it ripples along; 
It breathes in the zephyr, just kissing the bloom; 
It lives in the rush of the sweeping simoom; 
Let the hurricane whistle, or warblers rejoice, 
What do they tell thee, but God hath a voice ! 
God hath a presence, and that ye may see 
In the fold of the flower, the leaf of the tree; 
In the sun of the noon-day. the star of the night; 
In the storm-cloud of darkness,the rainbow of 1'ght; 
In the waves of the ocean, the furrows of land; 
In the mountain of granite, the atom of sand; 
Turn where ye may, from the sky to the sod, 
Where can ye gaze that ye see not a God I 
