SECRETARY'S REPORT. 49 



more convenient to draw straiglit lines and set the roots about 

 eighteen inches apart one way, and one foot the other, in small 

 clusters of about live or six together, the grasses taken up 

 with them in the turf having first been removed from them. 

 The practice of some has been to set the turf, thus taken up, 

 into the row without removing the grass ; but the vines are so 

 tenacious of life that there is little danger of their dying, even 

 if all their natural earth is removed from the roots ; and those 

 who have followed this method have generally had much less 

 trouble in the subsequent cultivation. Some prefer to set 

 them in rows at a greater distance apart, having the rows two 

 and a half or three feet, and the plants one foot, in the rows. 

 The distance may be regulated, somewhat, by circumstances. 

 K the sand is thick and loose so as to make it impracticable to 

 cultivate the vines and pull up the grasses and weeds, on 

 account of the danger of starting the roots, the closer the 

 plants are set, the better, since they will thus the sooner cover 

 the ground and get the advantage of the grasses. Where it is 

 not intended to hoe the plants in such situations, a foot each 

 way will probably be the most convenient distance between 

 the plants. 



Many fields which I have seen, are thus arranged. Swamps 

 like those described, which have always been considered as 

 entirely incapable of improvement, have been reclaimed in 

 many instances, with great labor, and filled up with coarse, 

 white beach sand, and often, where the swamp has been covered 

 with water, to the depth of three or four feet. The plants 

 have then been set out in the manner described, from one foot 

 to eighteen inches apart, in holes made in the sand by a small 

 stick, hoe or dibble, and sometimes with the hand; a small 

 cluster of roots taken from the sod in which they had been 

 taken from their natural position, freed from grass and roots, 

 being placed in each hole. In such a situation there will 

 always be moisture enough for them. 



The cost in these cases varies from $100 to $400 per acre. 

 Under the most favorable circumstances, I have never known 

 an acre prepared in this way, to fall below $125 ; and that, too, 

 even where it has been prepared in the most economical way, all 

 the labor being performed by the owner himself. The cost, in 

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