PRACTICAL PAPERS— COMMUNICATIONS. 
867 
increases the growth of the vines, giving greater vigor and consequently 
enhancing their productiveness. Flowing has the same effect, and serves 
to check the ravages of the cranberry worm and insects, which at times 
cause great damage. My marsh is probably improved as much as any in 
this section. I have built a good substantial drain, which will hold two 
feet of water, with a good outlet. I have also dug ditches two feet wide 
and twenty inches deep, once in five rods across the marsh. We find by ex¬ 
perience that it increases the quantity, and improves the quality of the 
berries, as well as adds greatly to the surety of a crop, to flow the vines dur¬ 
ing the winter; from the first of November to the first of May or June, ac¬ 
cording to the season. 
The picking is mostly done by women and children, but the past season 
men made good wages at it. I paid seventy cents a bushel for picking the 
last crop. This, with other expenses, make the cost of harvesting one dol¬ 
lar a bushel. I sold the crop at four dollars a bushel. 
We estimate that only about one-fourth of the land in this section suit¬ 
able for cranberries is under cultivation; yet, from present indications, we 
do not apprehend that there is any danger of the business being overdone; 
for notwithstanding the yield has increased year by year, there has been a 
corresponding advance in market value. About 10,000 barrels of berries 
were sold in this market in 1870, at prices varying from $9 to $15 a barrel; 
while nine years ago, (in 1801,) they were a drug at seventy-five cents a 
bushel; less than some pay now for picking. At that time they were gath¬ 
ered on shares, one half going to the picker. 
Yours with respect, J. D. WALTER. 
Berlin, March 1871. 
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT OF WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY. 
Dr. J. W. Hoyt, Secretary Wisconsin State Agricultural Society: 
I herewith send you a brief article, presenting some facts which may be 
of interest, respecting the plans, and some of the experiments being tried 
by the Department of Agriculture of the University of Wisconsin. 
This Department, organized under the act of Congress of July 2, 1862, 
known as the “ Agricultural College bill,’’ has been in operation for three 
years, ft has a complete course of study, in which are combined the theo¬ 
retical knowledge and the practical application of those sciences with which 
the farmer, the gardener and the fruit grower are constantly dealing. 
Agriculture, as a science, is wide in its range, embracing all the natural 
sciences. Botany, zoology, physiology, chemistry, geology, mechanics, 
physics and meteorology, are the foundation stones upon which a proper 
knowledge of agriculture must be built. It is the design of this depart¬ 
ment to give the most thorough theoretical instruction in these sciences, 
