448 



The system of sanding cranberry land is greatly varied. On Cape Cod 

 the cultivators take advantage of their extremely cold winters. When 

 their bogs are covered with ice of sufticient thickness to bear a horse 

 and wagon, sand is carted over it and spread to the thickness required. 

 When the ice melts, the sand is deposited evenly over the vines, at a 

 cost of ten to fifteen dollars per acre, for one inch in thickness. In 

 Southern New Jersey this system of sanding can seldom be taken ad- 

 vantage of, owing to the mildness of its winter. Mr. Theodore Budd, 

 of Pemberton, N. J., informed nie that in his neighborhood a layer of 

 sand one inch thick can be spread over an acre of vines at a cost of $20, 

 provided labor does not exceed $1.50 per day of ten hours, and when 

 the sand is procured on the edge of the bog to be covered. On large 

 XJlautations, consisting of one hundred to three hundred acres, a layer of 

 sand one inch thick will cost from $40 to $00 dollars per acre. The 

 cost will, of course, vary according to the distance of transportation. 



The cranberry growers of New Jersey are very much divided in 

 opinion as to the amount of water that should flow in the ditches of 

 their bogs when the berries are coloring under high atmosi)heric tem- 

 perature. Some believe that excessive moisture and high tempera- 

 ture cause the berries to rot, while others equally intelligent afiSrm 

 the opposite. Much of this uncertainty arises from the limited quan- 

 tity of water furnished at the fountain-head of many of the bogs under 

 cultivation. A small stream will quickly fill the ditches of a 10-acre 

 lot when stops or gates are used ; but, during high temperatures, the 

 water becomes quickly heated, and instead of proving beneficial will 

 l^rove hurtful to the vines, especially when the sub-soil has not been well 

 decomposed. Under such conditions fermentation will be promoted, 

 producing organic acids and sulphuretted hydrogen in the vicinity of 

 the roots, while a much larger flow of water in the ditches would cool 

 the substratum of the bogs, and remove, at the same time, all soluble 

 noxious substances. 



At the Taunton plantation Mr. Hinchman introduced a novel system 

 of washing sand over his bog-land by means of a stream of water con- 

 veyed for that i)urpose along the base of the high sand-blutfs which 

 nearly surround his plats of cranberry vines. I am informed by Mr. 

 Hinchman that by the use of this system sand was washed over his 

 lands at the rate of ten tons per minute. In this way a kind of sand 

 charged with ocherous clay (which is at present deemed worthless for 

 cranberry-culture) may be used, as the water floats and separates the 

 clay from the sand, depositing the latter on the vines, while the clay is 

 washed away in the main stream, which was highly colored in conse- 

 quence at a distance of ten miles below the point of operation. 



Before investing in cranberry-culture more attention should be paid 

 to the condition of the soil than has heretofore been done ; for on that 

 depends the quantity of water necessarily required for the purposes of 

 irrigation. When water is very limited in supplj^ it should be protect- 

 ed from the sun's rays in some practicable way. Small ponds or dams 

 used as reservoirs might be protected by shade trees, and in many cases 

 streams might be easily protected in this way. On my last visit to 

 Bricksburgb, September 12, in company with Dr. Merriman of that 

 place, we visited one of his plantations for the purpose of testing the 

 difference of temperature of the waters at difl'erent parts of the bog. 

 The stream which supplied several acres with water was so small that 

 it might have been all conveyed at the time of our visit through a 



