DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



571 



paving the crop when begun in season, and follow- 

 ed up retrularly two or tliree times a week. After 

 a rain it should be immediately renewed. Ji. 

 Kewton. Worcester, Mass., May 10, 1848. 



The whole secret of r.\ising Cranber- 

 ries. — By B. G. Boswell, Philadelphia. — Now 

 that ten times the quantity of this valuable fruit 

 is cultivated above what there was forty years ago, 

 and yet the price is full one hundred percent, high- 

 er than formerly, and wiiesi it is now shipped from 

 Boston to most of the middle, and the southern, 

 and some of the western States — l.o the West In- 

 dies, Europe, and even to the East Indies — it 

 seems perfectly natural to inquire if the fruit can- 

 not be grown in dili'erent and various sections of 

 the country. 



We have written so often on this subject as to 

 be nearly ashamed of writing another word ; but 

 knowing that thousands of the friends of Horticul- 

 ture are totally unacquainted with its cultivation, 

 we proceed to give the best method of culture on 

 wet, moist, and dry soils. 



The soil may be sandy, gravelly, loamy or 

 mucky — but the more muck the better. Clay soil 

 should be particularly avoided as it will bake in 

 dry weather, and the cranberry never flourishes on 

 this kind of soil. 



Swamp soils. — Where this kind of land can be 

 drained, and then ploughed and harrowed, it makes 

 a most desirable soil. Strike out furr>-iws, two 

 feet apart, and set in the plants six inches apart in 

 the furrows or drills — care being taken to put all 

 the root part of the plant below the surface. Keep 

 the ground clear of grass and weeds the first sea- 

 son by hoeing. In general no cultivation is needed 

 afterwards, and in two or three years the vines 

 will completely cover the ground. Frequently 

 some fruit is produced the first season. 



Abundant crops are yielded when the vines cover 

 the ground ; three hundred and twenty bushels to 

 the acre having been produced. 



Where swamp ground is situated so low that it 

 cannot he drained, cover it during winter with sand 

 or gravel to the depth of about three inches — this 

 will kill the grass — dig small holes and set out six 

 plants together in a hill two feet apart each w-ay. 

 Where a person has a field of plants growing, sods 

 of the plants, three or four inches square, may be 

 set out three feet apart each way. Fine planta- 

 tions have been made in this manner. 



Moist upland, is treated in the same manner 

 as drained swsimp land. 



Dry upland should have some swamp muck put 

 in the furrows, previous to setting the plants, if 

 convenient. 



Gathering the fruit. — Cranberry rakes are now 

 used in Massachusetts, with which one man can 

 gather fifty bushels in a day — and although these 

 rakes tear the vines somewhat, yet the crop is not 

 diminished ; on the contraiy, it is increased. Some 

 years ago a farmer in Massachusetts commenced 



raking his little patch of one-fourth of an acre. 

 The first year it produced twelve bushels, the next 

 eighteen, the third twenty-five, and so on till he 

 gathered sixty-five bushels, or at the rate of two 

 hundred and sixty bushels per acre. 



This increase is easily accounted for — the pull- 

 ing up a few vines loosens the ground, and al- 

 though not intended, yet in fact the raking acts as 

 a partial cultivator. 



Shipping the fruit. — Previous to shipping cran- 

 berries, the berries should be run over a platform 

 slightly inclined — across this platform should be 

 nailed some common plastering lath six inches 

 apart. The bruised fruit will not run off but stick 

 fast on their way down the platform; and are 

 scraped off and thrown away, or else sold at a re- 

 duced price. If the fruit is to be sent to Europe 

 or Asia, it should be put into tight casks, and 

 when headed up, filled with water. In this man- 

 ner they arrive in Europe in perfect order, and 

 have frequently sold in England and France at 

 twenty dollars per barrel. 



Ten thousand plants will plant out nearly a 

 quarter of an acre. In three years, from this fourth 

 of an acre several acres may be planted out from 

 plants of one's own raising. The plants may be set 

 out in November, in the fall, and from the opening 

 of spring until the 20th of May. B. G. Boswell. 

 Philadelphia, May 17, 1848. 



Mr. Longworth's Strawberry Challenge 

 Accepted. — A. J. Downing, Esq. — I have been 

 so pressed with correspondence and other avo- 

 cations that I have reluctantly deferred for some 

 time past a portion of my duties to the public and 

 to myself. The amateurs of Pomona and of Flora 

 will, however, in the result realize that I have not 

 been idle " in inking notes," if I have appeared re- 

 miss in their annunciation. The " Strawberry 

 Question" will in the finale be solved by more sub- 

 stantial means, than by such falsified quotations, 

 misrepresentations, and plagiarisms, as I perceive 

 the public have had palmed upon them of late, and 

 which will at leisure receive their merited rebuke. 

 My present object is to say but few words, and 

 those direct to one of the points in the controver- 

 sy. Mr. Longworth, whose opinions are entitled 

 to the highest respect, and consequently to a full 

 investigation, has repeatedly offered a reward of 

 $500 for the production of any staminate variety 

 of the strawberry, that will produce a full crop. 

 Indeed he has stated that he never yet had one 

 such variety " that would average one quarter of a 

 crop,'' and again in a letter to me, "3'ou cannot 

 produce the plant that will average one quarter 

 of a crop of large perfect fruit from what you call 

 a perfect plant; much less can you one in which 

 both organs are perfect in all the blossoms," and 

 in another letter to me commenting upon various 

 staminate varieties, he says, " your Primate is S. 

 and very large and productive. This surely may 

 claim the $500." In order to obtain a fair under- 



