HORTICULTURE. 325 



placed in a poor soil, or to render it so by removing the top soil by filling up or by any other 

 process. If these rules are followed, there is no difiiculty whatever in their cultivation. 



In setting out a cranberry plantation, the soil is prepared the same as for sowing grain, by 

 plowing, harrowing, and making your soil even ; then mark it out in drills 18 or 20 inches 

 apart, putting the plants in the drills 5 or 6 inches apart ; hoe them slightly at first, till the 

 roots become clinched, and afterwards no other cultivation is needed. The plants may be 

 expected to run together and cover the whole soil in two or three years. The cranberry 

 grown by cultivation usually yields from 150 to 400 bushels per acre ; its fruit is two or three 

 times as large as the wild fruit, and of a beautiful flavor; it readily keeps sound from the 

 harvest-time of it to the time of harvest again. The fruit is generally gathered in Sep- 

 tember ; it is gathered with wire-teeth rakes made for the purpose ; one man will generally 

 gather from 30 to 40 bushels per day, with the aid of a boy to pick up the scattering fruit. 



Persons having a garden of moderate size, and wishing to raise their own cranberries of a 

 superior quality, can do so by obtaining a few plants ; and with a small amount of labor at 

 the commencement, will find their cultivation both easy and profitable. The proper time for 

 fall transplanting is October and November ; for spring, from the opening of the same till 

 about the 25th of May. 



The bell cranberry may also be grown in pots and boxes, and in these situations is an ex- 

 ceedingly ornamental plant, as the fruit when protected will remain upon the vines until they 

 again blossom, the blossoms starting each year from the new growth. The exceeding beauti- 

 ful appearance of this slender vine, standing erect, and clothed in the most luxuriant green, 

 bearing its delicate blossoms, and laden with rich clusters of crimson-colored fruit, renders 

 it, as an ornament for the window, garden, or green-house, entirely unrivalled. As the cran- 

 berry naturally grows in a very wet soil, it is generally supposed it will not thrive in a dry 

 soil ; but this idea is erroneous. Mr. Bates has cultivated the cranberry on a dry soil for 

 several years with the utmost success, having produced 300 bushels to the acre on several 

 acres, and his fruit double the usual size. 



The method of cultivation followed by Mr. Hall, a well-known cultivator in Massachusetts, 

 is to spread on his swampy ground a quantity of sand : this is to kill the grass ; but where 

 sand is not at hand, gravel will answer the same purpose. He then digs holes four feet apart 

 each way, and puts in the holes sods of cranberry-plants about one foot square. 



In Massachusetts, the cranberry crop is once in a few years cut off by the late spring frosts. 

 This may be prevented where a meadow is so situated as to be flowed. The water should not 

 be over one or two inches deep on the cranberries, nor left on later than the last of May in 

 this climate. If kept on till it becomes warm, it will kill the vines. Sometimes, in the 

 Eastern States, the cranberries are destroyed by a frost in September ; where water is con- 

 venient and plenty, the meadow could be flowed on cold nights, at this season, as well as in 

 the spring. 



Previous to shipping cranberries, they should be run over a platform slightly inclined. The 

 rotten and bruised fruit will not ran off, but stick going down the platform, and are scraped 

 off and thrown away. The perfect fruit is then put into tight barrels, which are headed up, 

 filled with water, and in this manner they arrive in Europe in perfect order, and have fre- 

 quently sold in foreign ports at $20 per barrel. 



Rakes are now made for the express purpose of gathering cranberries, and although these 

 rakes tear the vines somewhat, yet the crop is not diminished by raking ; on the contrary, it 

 has been increased. Some years ago, a gentleman in Massachusetts commenced raking his 

 little patch of one-fourth of an acre. The first year it produced 12 bushels, the next 18, the 

 third 25, and so on till his last harvest, when the crop amounted to 65 bushels. This increase 

 is easily accounted for by the method of gathering with rakes — the pulling up a few of the 

 vines loosens the ground ; and although not intended, yet in fact the raking acts as a partial 

 cultivation. In order to promote the cultivation of this fruit, we understand that arrange- 

 ments have been made by the American Institute for supplying horticulturists with cranberry- 

 plants early in the spring. Plants are also supplied by Mr. Bates, of Belli ngham, Massa- 

 chusetts. The usual price charged for the bell cranberry is from seven to eight dollars per 

 thousand plants. 



