136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tion of heat, will suflScieutly explain. Referring to this important 

 desideratum, natural protection from frost, Mr. S. says, that were 

 he to begin again, he would go 200 miles to find a lake, were none 

 available within that distance. The kinds of berries grown here 

 are designated ' bell shaped ' and ■ ' cherry shaped,' and are iden- 

 tical with those raised at New Jersey and Cape Cod. 



The pickers begin about the 20th of September, and gather 

 from 1 to 2| bushels each, per day. Sometimes 50 or 60 persons, 

 men, women and children, are employed. The ground allotted to 

 each person is indicated by lines of twine stretcL'ed along the 

 surface for several rods, and 8 to 10 feet apart. Compensation, 

 50 cents per bushel. At the Cape they receive but 25 cents. A 

 fair yield is 200 bushels per acre. The crop this year is light, 

 owing to an unprecedented drouth. 



The Messrs. Shattuck attempt no abstruse philosophical reason- 

 ing, concerning the principles of plant" growth and nutrition. 

 They state squarel}^ as the result of their long practice and 

 experience, covering a period of nearly 30 years, that the cran- 

 berry grows to perfection on lake shore soil, whether it be 

 composed of sand, gravel or clay, or a combination of the three ; 

 that it thrives in peat or muck, in a word, that it grows wherever 

 grass will grow, it being necessary only to keep down the bushes, 

 and attend to flowing at the proper time. Further, it is not 

 claimed on their part that cranberries can only be grown by strict 

 conformity to their own methods of culture ; they onlj'^ state just 

 what they have done. It is not the object of this essay to suggest 

 how far the results obtained by these men should go to modify or 

 correct the methods practised elsewhere, or to disprove the state- 

 ments of other writers, some of them no doubt practical men, who 

 assert that cranberries will not grow in what geologists call the 

 "drift formation," that is, loam and clay; but it is certainly 

 gratifying to know that the culture of this I'ruit need not be limited 

 to the narrower range of soils in which, generally speaking, it has 

 hitherto been grown, and so far as the idea is new, it will operate 

 to encourage the grower, and induce a larger number to engage 

 in the business. Finally, the results here noted abundantly prove 

 that Maine embraces all the requirements for the successful 

 culture of the cranberry, so far as the means and facilities 

 furnished by nature therefor are concerned. Discouragements 

 will of course arise, mistakes, blight, frost and sometimes unsatis- 

 factory crops, but these are only circumstances, that eventually 



