43 



Sometimes large tr^es in a state of fermentation are found in the 

 bottom of mill-ponds, and bad soil aud rotting berries have always been 

 found in their immediate neighborhood. Pure sand, in some cases, has 

 been used successfully in cranberry culture when irrigated with cool 

 and running peaty water ; and so also clayey sand, but with indifferent 

 success. In one case I found a condition of soil dilfering from all these. 

 It consisted of "black sand," or "savanna," as it is sometimes called, 

 and had on its surface about three inches of a heavy, undecomposed, 

 fermenting peat, which had been spread over it by artificial means. 

 Lastly, cranberry land sometimes consists of a thin layer of well decom- 

 posed peat, six to eight inches in depth, but rendered useless by being 

 charged with back water from adjacent fermenting bog-land. 



In the use of lime, under such conditions, science and common sense 

 must be exercised. In the first place, a bog consisting of six feet of fer- 

 menting muck, with a poor supply of pure running water, cannot be 

 easily brought into the condition of pure humus matter by the use of 

 forty bushels of lime to the acre. This amount will prove beneficial, 

 and if the following season should have favorable climatic conditions, 

 and additional applications should be made, more satisfactory results 

 may be expected from its use than would occur without it ; but if a 

 long drought and high temperature should follow, the value of the lime 

 would not be appreciable; and yet the same amount applied to a thin 

 layer of fermenting peat, with a proper supply of water, would give 

 marked and valuable results. The application of lime to well decom- 

 posed peaty matter or humus will not cause fermentation, but simply 

 oxidation, producing a class of organic acids highly beneficial to plant- 

 growth, being always combined with more or less ammonia. The appli- 

 cation of caustic or carbonate of lime, especially the former, to savanna 

 land, may be generally considered as injurious to it in the absence of a 

 liberal supply of water charged with soluble humus matter; because 

 the lime, whether caustic or otherwise, will soon destroy by oxidation 

 the small percentage of vegetable matter contained in it. The savanna 

 lands of the Cranberry Park Company, at Atsion, N. J., have a 

 bountiful supply of peaty water at command, and the sour portions may 

 be safely treated with lime in any form, while the savanna lands, near 

 Pemberton, in the same State, require very different treatment. All 

 the land in that neighborhood which I examined was in a healthy con- 

 dition, and free from sour acid odors ; but some mode of irrigation will 

 be required to keep the soil moist during long droughts. The applica- 

 tion of sulphate of lime — land-plaster — which absorbs water from the 

 atmosphere, would be more favorable for such land. 



It is acknowledged that the savanna lands have a great tendency to be 

 impoverished quickly under cultivation. 1 would recommend the adop- 

 tion of the following mode of ameliorating such land : Take any quantity 

 of heavy peat-muck, and make a compost of it with quick-lime, turning it 

 over frequently, and allowing the full action of the atmosphere on it. 

 Frost will tend to pulverize it, while high temperature will favor fer- 

 mentation, destroying its albuminoids. The lime will neutralize its 

 tannic acid, and allow the proteine compounds preserved by it to pass 

 through the stages of decomposition, converting the vegetable mass 

 into humus matter. Any excess of lime will combine with the acetic 

 and other organic acids present, neutralizing them. The whole mass, 

 when dry, should be pounded or reduced by a rolling-machine to the 

 form of powder, and spread over the surface of the savanna lands.* 



* The expense of collecting and pulverizing need not exceed three dollars per ton. 

 Rolling-mills, suitable for this purpose, used in the manufacture of artificial fertilizers, 

 may be had in Philadelphia, or in any of the other cities of the United States. 



