QUESTION DRAWER. 



their full size. It then lets itself down by 

 a silken thread and buries itself a short 

 distance beneath the surface of the 

 ground, where it spins a dark brown 

 cocoon, inside which it remains until 

 the following spring. The only remedy 

 which has given any results, is picking 

 by hand all the injured berries as soon 

 as they show by turning prematurely red, 

 that they are attacked. Letting chickens 

 run among the bushes both before the 

 fruit is ripe, and late in the autumn, it 

 is claimed is a good plan, as the hens 

 devour many of the insects. It is also 

 advised to destroy the fallen leaves and 

 rubbish from beneath the bushes in au- 

 tumn, so as to destroy any cocoons spun 

 at the surface of the ground. 



Cranberry Growing. 



944. .'^iR, — Would you or some of your 

 members give me iuformation about planting 

 anil cultivation of Cranberries. Would you 

 plant seed in the marsh or start in a be<l, and 

 transplant bushes aftersvards ? Will the 

 bushes grow in water and if so to what 

 depth ? A reply in your next number will 

 greatly oblige. Yours truly, 



R. A. C. 



Cranberry growing is not always a 

 success. A large bog was made artifi- 

 cially at Walkerville, at very great e.\- 

 pense, and has so far proved a failure. 

 But where natural conditions are favora- 

 ble, so as to reduce the great e.xpense 

 of establishing the plantation, they are 

 usually profitable, for after the bog is 

 once completed and the vines in bear- 

 ing condition, the culture is simple and 

 inexpensive. The N'ew England Farmer 

 gives the following instructions for pre- 

 paring and planting a patch : A piece 

 of low, swampy territory is selected to 

 begin with. From this all the trees, 

 bushes, or whatever growth may exist, 



are thoroughly cleaned out and the roots 

 eradicated. Then the turf or dirt is 

 taken off and the bog ditched and lev- 

 eled. The old fashioned way of getting 

 the level by the water and straight edge 

 can not be improved upon for accuracy 

 where the bog is well ditched. The 

 level place is then covered with some 

 four inches of coarse sand— some put on 

 five — and the coarser the sand the bet- 

 ter, if it will not interfere too much with 

 the growth of the vines. The bog is 

 then ready for the planting of the vines, 

 the only fertilizer employed is to some- 

 times put a trifle of guano on the top of 

 the plant, which works down through 

 the sand to the roots of the vine. Three 

 years must usually pass before the vines 

 bear fruit, and they are generally not in 

 bearing condition until the fourth year 

 after planting. Some bogs on the Cape 

 are still in good bearing condition that 

 have yielded fruit for more than thirty 

 years Sometimes the vines are mowed 

 down closely, but they come up again 

 and bear more vigorously for cutting. 

 The chief attention required is to keep 

 down the weeds and rushes, which are 

 usually not troublesome if not neglect- 

 ed, and to watch the enemies of the 

 vines, the principal of which is what is 

 popularly known as the fire worm. If 

 they get in unobserved, a promising lot 

 will be completely ruined in a few days, 

 and they do their work so rapidly that 

 they are well named the fire worm. Of 

 late years they have been quite destruc- 

 tive. The remedy for them is a tobacco 

 wash and it generally proves very effica- 

 cious if applied in time. The cost of 

 producing a barrel of Cranberries all 

 ready for market varies from three to 

 four dollars per standard barrel of loo 

 quarts. It is safe to put down the aver- 

 age market Value at $7.00 per barrel. 



203 



