268 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



northern and southern States ; and although it has been 

 gathered from its native haunts from the earliest settlement 

 of the country, yet it is only within a few years that it has 

 become an object of cultivation. Experience has probably 

 not yet fully developed the most certain means of attaining 

 the greatest success, but enough is already known, to as- 

 sume that they are a profitable object of attention to the 

 farmer. 



There seems to be several varieties of the cranberry, 

 which differ in size, color, shape and flavor. Some of these 

 are worth much more in the market than others ; and, occa- 

 sionally, the choicest have sold as high as $3.50 per bushel. 



Soil and cultivation. They are generally planted on 

 low, moist meadows, which are prepared by thorough plow- 

 ing and harrowing. They are then set in drills by slips 

 and roots, usually in the spring, but sometimes in autumn, 

 about 20 inches apart, and at distances of about three inches. 

 They require to have the weeds kept out, and the ground 

 stirred with a light cultivator or hoe, and they will soon 

 overrun and occupy the whole ground. An occasional top 

 dressing of swamp muck is beneficial. In this way, 300 

 bushels per acre have been produced in Massachusetts, 

 which were worth in the market from one to two dollars 

 per bushel. Capt. Hall, of the same State, raises them in 

 a swamp, first giving it a top dressing of*sand or gravel to 

 kill the grass, when he digs holes four feet apart, and inserts 

 in each, a sod of cranberry plants about one foot square. 

 From these sods they gradually spread till the whole sur- 

 face is occupied. 



The cranberry is sometimes killed by late or early frosts ; 

 and it has been suggested, that these can be avoided by 

 having the fields so arranged, when frosts may be expected, 

 as to be slightly covered with water. The cranberry is 

 gathered when sufficiently ripe, by raking them from the 

 bushes. They are cleaned from the stems, leaves, and im- 

 perfect berries, by washing and rolling them over smooth 

 boards set on an inclined plane, in the same manner as im- 

 perfect shot are assorted. After this, they are put into tight, 

 casks and filled with water. If stored in a cool >lace, the 

 water changed at proper intervals, and the imperfect berries 

 occasionally thrown out, they will keep till the following 

 summer. They will frequently bring $20 per barrel in 

 European markets. The raking of the plant in harvesting 



