138 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



come to sand. It is not convenient to flow it. Would it be any 

 use to set vines iu such a place as that? 



President Shaw. They do it successfully in many places. All 

 you have to contend against is frost, but I think 3'ou would be suc- 

 cessful in a niajoiMty of years. The soil they grow on naturally 

 in Massachusetts, is a peaty soil. 1 think cranberry vines will 

 not kill grass entirely, but they will overpower it so as to predom- 

 inate. I think the quickest and easiest way to get a crop would 

 be to take the grass off before setting. If I were going to set 

 out vines without taking off the turf, I should haul on sand or 

 gravel before setting. If I could plow I should do so, as it would 

 be easier to plow than to take the turf off. In our town they set 

 the vines about a foot apart. 



Question, Don't they sometimes chop vines up before setting 

 them ? 



President Shaw. Yes ; one of my neighbors told me that two 

 or throe years ago last summer he mowed over some vines, and 

 would sometimes cut them. After dinner he raked the piece, and 

 while raking when he saw a vine he would make a hole and stick 

 it down, and he found that they invariably grew. 



Secretary Boardsian. It may or may not be known to members 

 of the Board, that Mr. Chase of Buckfield is one of the largest 

 growers of cranberries in the State, that he has devoted years of 

 time to it, and is very successful. I would like to hear from Mr. 

 Reynolds, an account of his operations. 



Mr. Reynolds of Canton, Member from Oxford county. Mr. 

 Chase has three pieces of cranberries; one in Peru, one in Buck- 

 field, and one near Bryant's Pond Station on the Grand Trunk. He 

 has raised six and seven hundred bushels in a year. He always 

 cleared the turf off, and alwaj'S planted where he could flow. A 

 brother of his has begun to raise them. He got seventeen bushels 

 this year. Several persons iu Peru have begun to raise them. A 

 man by the name of Richards has just cleared off' two acres, and 

 got them ready for the vines. Mr. Chase says it is not much use 

 to try to raise them where you cannot flow. Sometimes they have 

 trouble by getting the vines frozen in the ice, and then a freshet 

 coming and lifting the ice so that it tears them out. 



Question. Does he find it necessary after removing the turf to 

 cover the piece with sand ? 



Mr. Reynolds. He does. It makes it a good deal cleaner pick- 

 ing. The muck is nasty in wet weather, and the berries are picked 



