CRANBERRIES. 115 



the crops would hardly pay for the labor of planting and gath- 

 ering. 



The manner of planting was as follows : The land was 

 plouglied about seven inches deep, and harrowed ; light furrows, 

 about three feet apart, were run lengthwise ; then cranberry 

 sods, of the bell variety, were planted in the furrows, from one 

 to two feet apart. 



It came on very dry soon after they were planted, which was 

 about tlie middle of June, and it was thought that the vines, 

 most of them, were dead ; therefore they received no more cul- 

 tivation ; but the next spring they started nicely, and bore a few 

 berries. In 185-1, — the season when every thing suffered from 

 drought — the vines were but slightly affected, producing, by es- 

 timation, about three bushels of cranberries. The same sea- 

 son we had corn adjoining, on the lower side, which suffered 

 from the drought. 



This last spring, (1855,) I put on a small quantity of salt in 

 different spots, which, I think, improved the quantity and qual- 

 ity of the berries very much, and gathered, this fall, about six 

 bushels of very large and nice cranberries, worth ^oO, while 

 the cost of gathering was but $6, leaving a balance of $21 in 

 favor of the crop. 



Northampton. 



BARNSTABLE. 



[By official statistics it appears that there are 3,126 acres of 

 cranberries in Massachusetts. The aggregate value of this crop 

 is returned as $146,074. By far the largest proportion of 

 cultivated acres is to be found on Cape Cod. 



The writer of the following Essay has inadvertently con- 

 founded the species of the cranberry with some of its sub- 

 varieties. There are but two known species of any value 

 belonging to this genus of plants, the American and the 

 European. The latter, though much inferior in size to the 

 former, is often preferred in the London market. The Bell, 

 and other cranberries mentioned, are only sub-varieties of the 

 American cranberry. — Ed.] 



