CRANBERRIES. 113 



pensable in winter or spring. Salt scattered over the land, or 

 salt water submerging the land, improves the berry— rendering 

 it hardier, firmer, and more capable of distant transportation. 

 What it most needs is contiguity to water and air, and next to 

 these, proximity to the seashore. This appears the more prob- 

 able from an analysis made by Prof. Horsford, and contained in 

 Mr. Flint's Report of 1853. Indeed, without any analysis, facts 

 already known would justify our proposition. At Ipswich, one 

 cultivator grows the fairest fruit where the vine is planted in 

 white beach sand, without any mixture of soil or manure. 

 And the freer the land is of rushes and grasses the better, the 

 cranberry fruit and vine flourish. 



Tlie time for cranberry culture may be said to be spring and 

 fall ; though, with great care and pains, the vine may be set in 

 August safely, all things else being suitable; If you make cran- 

 berry beds by transplanting, do it in the fall. If ])y sowing 

 seed, or scattering slips, do it in the spring ; and May is now 

 supposed to be the best time, although future experiment may 

 yet prove it to be safe to do either at an earlier period of the 

 spring. The time for gathering in fall should be determined by 

 the growth of the berry ; gather it when full grown, whether its 

 color be changed or -not, — do not wait for it to become red, if 

 thus you must risk the autumn frost or rot. The experience of 

 one of the committee is, that the earlier it be gathered when 

 full grown, the longer will it keep in good condition into the 

 next year. If this shall prove to be correct, it is worthy of con- 

 sideration, and those having large beds under culture will do a 

 public service by promulgating their experience in this respect. 

 The mode of gathering is by picking or raking, — and which is 

 best depends upon the amount of labor at the disposal of the 

 grower, or extent of surface from which the gathering is to be 

 made. If from a small patch, picking by hand is the preferable 

 mode, and in all cases, where practicable, as by this process the 

 fruit is not bruised. If from several acres, raking is the more 

 economical mode, — saving time, whicli to the farmer is money, 

 and possibly, securing the crop against an early frost. 



To young vines, not strongly rooted, the use of the rake may 

 be injurious, and therefore, in so using it, care should be taken 

 not to disturb the roots. Where the vines are five years old, 

 or more, and strongly rooted, the rake may be usefully em~ 



15* 



