242 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and I tbiuk he said hauled on some sand. Two years ago I was 

 on that piece of ground and he remarked to me that he had picked 

 forty bushels of cranberries, the most of them on that part of the 

 piece where the cranberries originated, which never was culti- 

 vated. I saw him about a fortnight ago, and he told me he had 

 picked sixty bushels and was still picking. I don't know on 

 which part the yield was greatest. These cranberries were what 

 they call the Bell variety, and nicer ones I never saw. He told 

 me that he labored under a disadvantage in not being able to flow 

 his vines at will. If he could do so he could destroy the worm 

 which is the enemy of the cranberry. He flows as much of his 

 ground as he can in the fall, after taking off his berries, but he 

 cannot flow all of it. 



Mr. Gile of Alfred, about twelve miles from ray place, is a large 

 cranberry grower. He has twelve acres under cultivation ; I think 

 on some portions of it he took off the sod, others he did not. His 

 land is so situated that he can flow it any season. He has been 

 troubled with this worm, but he has learned the season when it is 

 destructive, and by flooding at that season he destroys it. His 

 present method of gathering his cranberries is to rake them off", 

 and leaving them on the ground, to flow the meadow. The cran- 

 berries rise to the surface, and run by a flume into a house which 

 he has built to receive them, and he has constructed a machine of 

 bis own invention, which separates, as they come down, the berries 

 from all dirt, and the large berries from the small. It cost 20 

 cents per bushel to gather them in this way, and it formerly cost 

 $1.25. He raised about 120 barrels this year. 



With regard to winter freezing, I have no doubt that if the 

 water freezes low enough to get hold of the cranberry roots, and 

 the ice is lifted by a freshet it would destroy the vines, but I don't 

 think the frost itself will destroy them. When I was a boy, I 

 knew a marsh where cranberries grew spontaneously, and I have 

 gone many a time in the winter and cut out cranberries with an 

 axe, and they were as nice ones as I ever saw in my life. 



President Shaw, The remarks of Mr. Bodwell remind me of 

 what I was told some time since by a cranberry cultivator, that 

 in taking off the turf he had taken too much soil, and the vines 

 were going to be a failure because there was not soil enough left. 



Hon, G. B. Barrows of Fryebnrg. It seems to me that this is 

 a very interesting subject, and if the Board shall succeed in call- 

 ing the attention of the farmers of the State to the possibilities in 



