1870 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
423 
closely attended to, or it had better be left alone. 
The plantations which we visited were near 
North Islip, upon Long Island. The land is 
very level, and is what is known as pine bar¬ 
rens, the natural growth being scrub pines and 
scrubbier oak's, with such herbaceous plants as 
are common to similar localities. The soil is 
sandy; at a depth of from one to four feet is a 
liardpan of very hard and coarse gravel of va¬ 
riable thickness, and below this it is pure sand 
as far down as any excavations have penetrated. 
The soil is not so poor as it looks, and responds 
readily to cultivation in fair farm crops. At 
this locality there are some twenty acres in 
cranberries, in lots varying in size from a garden 
patch to five acres. The land is first cleared 
and thoroughly grubbed, to remove all the nat¬ 
ural vegetation. The brush, roots, and other 
rubbish are taken off and burned elsewhere, as 
it is found that if burned upon the ground the 
ashes favor the incoming of weeds. The sur¬ 
face having been plowed and made as smooth 
as possible, it is ready to be planted. Planting 
is done in the spring, as the action of frosts is 
injurious to late set plants. Shallow furrows 
are opened across the field at three, or, prefera¬ 
bly, four feet apart. The plants that have been 
set in this locality thus far have been obtained 
from native bogs a few miles distant, and the 
best success has attended the planting of vines 
from localities that were naturally wet, rather 
than from dry ones. Care is taken to select 
such wild plants as are known to bear well. 
The plants are set, if short, about 8 inches apart; 
if the vines are long, the root is set, the long 
vine bent down in a line with the row, and a 
handful of earth placed upon it towards the end 
so as to form a layer. By this treatment the 
young growth will start at two points—from the 
root and from the place covered with earth. 
Three or four stems, which are very slender, are 
taken together and planted as one. The plant¬ 
ings made last spring, as well as those two years 
old, were remarkably uniform; there seldom be¬ 
ing a vine missing in the rows. The spaces be¬ 
tween the rows are worked with the cultivator as 
often as necessary to keep the surface free from 
weeds, and the rows themselves must be hand- 
weeded with as much care as a crop of onions 
or carrots. The first year but few introduced 
weeds come in, and the principal trouble is with 
native plants, the seeds or parts of roots of which 
have been left in the soil. These must be thor¬ 
oughly removed as they show themselves, and 
as they can be taken out the first season with 
much less disturbance to the cranberry plants 
than at any future time, no pains is spared to 
insure their eradication, and to give the vines 
the unmolested possession of the soil. The 
vines will become well established and make 
some growth the first season. The next year 
the treatment is the same as the first—cultivation 
between the rows and thorough hand-work. 
The native weeds will this year have been sub¬ 
dued, and the vines have spread so as to make 
the rows about a foot in width. A few scatter¬ 
ing berries are produced the second year. The 
third year the rows of crauberries become wider, 
and the intervening spaces narrower, but the 
same order of cultivation is kept up. This year 
the introduced weeds will Degin to be trouble¬ 
some, and, as. in all successful culture, must be 
taken in time. The principal weeds that we 
noticed (in Sept.) were Crab-grass,Sorrel, Spotted 
Spurge, and clover. The third year a small crop 
of fruit is yielded, but enough to pay for pick¬ 
ing. The bed is in full bearing the fifth year, the 
ground being covered with a mat of plants with 
a narrow foot-path between the rows or beds. 
The care of an established plantation demands 
the pressing down in early spring of such plants 
as may have been thrown up by the frosts, the re¬ 
moval of such weeds as may show themselves, 
and the picking of the crop. The yield of an acre 
in full bearing is put at 30 barrels, worth from 
$12 to $22 per barrel, according to the season. 
Picking costs 1 J | 2 cent a quart. It is estimated 
that one man can properly cultivate five acres, 
and if he did nothing else, considerably more. 
The fruit is much higher colored than that 
grown in bogs, it being of a very dark maroon 
color; and it is claimed that it is much heavier; 
at all events, it has a high standing among the 
dealers. Our visit was made early in Septem¬ 
ber, when the drouth had had an opportunity 
to work its full effect, and the plantations had 
been subjected to a test more severe than is like¬ 
ly to occur again for many years. The fruit un¬ 
der these circumstances, was not as large as in 
other years, but we saw, in properly cultivated 
fields, no indication of the dying out of the 
plants. In the neighborhood of the plantations 
referred to, cranberry fields can be established 
at the cost of $150 per acre, including price of 
land, clearing and setting of the plants. We saw 
not only well-cared-for plantations, but those in 
various Itages of neglect, where, the owners not 
having given them the needed attention at the 
proper time, the fields were badly injured or 
hopelessly ruined. That the cranberry can 
be made to yield fair crops of excellent fruit in 
the locality visited, we have no doubt. Those 
who wish to experiment elsewhere, should pro¬ 
ceed moderately, as it remains to be seen how 
much of the success here is due to the peculiar 
soil, and how much to the influence of the sea, 
which is only about five miles distant. It should 
also be borne in mind that under the favor¬ 
able local conditions we have mentioned, suc¬ 
cess attends only thorough cultivation. We 
would express our obligations to Mr. Thos. E. 
Bridger, the pioneer in the experiment, Mr. H. 
Moss, and Mr. Ellis, for the facilities they afford¬ 
ed us in examining the various plantations. 
Dwarf Pear-Trees. 
. There is no doubt that those who, like our 
friend Quinn, follow “PearCulture for Profit,” 
will find standard trees best suited to their pur¬ 
pose. But we must not forget that large class 
who have small gardens, with whom the pleas¬ 
ure of cultivation is the leading object, and to 
whom a dozen pears from their own tree is of 
more value than a bushel of fruit grown else¬ 
where. To such as these, the dwarf pear-trees 
are invaluable. They may be kept as dwarf as 
one pleases, be trained as small bushes or pyra¬ 
mids, or even grown to a single horizontal or 
vertical stem in what is called the cordon style. 
They are capitally suited to tenants; as when 
properly managed they may be taken up and 
moved to another garden as easily as a rose-bush. 
To do this the tree must be kept within certain 
limits. A dwarf pear-tree with the junction of 
the quince stock and the pear set several inches 
below the surface, soon ceases to be a proper 
dwarf, as roots are thrown out from the pear 
stem. In order that the tree shall remain truly 
a dwarf, the junction should be so near the sur¬ 
face that the pear roots cannot be found. If it 
be desired to keep the specimens very small, 
root-pruning should be resorted to, and the 
roots be thus kept within narrow limits. Riv¬ 
ers recommends transplanting the trees on alter¬ 
nate years as an aid in dwarfing. It is gener¬ 
ally considered injurious to a tree to allow it to 
bear fruit the season following its removal; 
while this may be the case with standards it is 
not so wflth a well-managed dwarf. We had a 
row of dwarfs that it was necessary to move 
this spring. After their removal they set a fine 
crop of fruit, which was thinned, and when per¬ 
fected was greatly superior to that upon trees 
of the same sort which remained undisturbed. 
The removed trees made a moderate growth, 
and have made abundant provision of fruit 
buds for another year. We think if it were gen¬ 
erally known how manageable the dwarf pear- 
tree is, and that when the trees are set in hired 
ground they are not beyond the possibility of 
removal, many would plant them who are un¬ 
willing to set out trees which they must upon 
removal leave to the possession of others. 
A Cheap and Durable Gate. 
An article upon gates in May last has called 
out several descriptions of other patterns of 
gates; some of these have already been publish¬ 
ed, others are too complicated to be generally 
useful, while a few are, like the one here present- 
I)Il. THORNBURGHS GATE. 
ed, simple and durable. The drawing is sent 
by Doct. A. Thornburgh, whose address we 
have mislaid. He says: “ This gate will not— 
can not sag. The back part is made of a small 
sapling, with a fork or projecting limb, which 
answers for a brace. Through the top of this 
passes a piece of an old trace chain, tightened 
up by a bolt and nut, forming an arch over the 
gate; the remainder explains itself. I was 
pleased with the gates figured in the May No., 
but where one has no smith handy, he can, by 
using my gate, construct one equally as orna¬ 
mental and much cheaper.” 
Fald Sown Garden Crops. —The weather 
during the month of September, has been so 
dry in most parts of the country, that those 
things which were sown for late use or for keep¬ 
ing over winter, have had a poor chance. Spin¬ 
ach, sprouts, and other winter crops, in most 
cases, did not germinate until the rains came. 
If we have a favorable November they may still 
make good-sized plants before winter, and a 
chance should be given them as long as the grow¬ 
ing season lasts, by cultivation and thinning. 
---* •>——* ®»--> - 
The “ Trophy ” Tomato. 
BV I'FTER HENDERSON. 
When Col. Waring advertised this variety last 
spring, at 25 cents per seed, or 20 seeds for $5, 
few thought he would find many purchasers at 
such a price; but the universal interest taken in 
this fruit and the confidence placed in Mr. Wait¬ 
ing's statements, led to the sale of seeds to a large 
amount to growers in all parts of the country. 
I had seen the “ Trophy” growing, the previ- 
