206 THE CRANBERRY. 



much smaller in its growth, and producing fruit inferior in 

 size and quality. 



The value of the common cranberry for tarts, preserves and 

 other culinary uses, is well known, and in portions of the coun- 

 try where it does not naturally grow, or is not abundantly pro- 

 duced, it is quite worth while to attempt its culture. Although 

 naturally, it grows mostly in mossy, wet land, yet it may be 

 easily cultivated in beds of peat soil, made in any rather moist 

 situation, and if a third of old thoroughly decayed manure is 

 added to the peat, the berries will be much larger, and of more 

 agreeable flavour than the wild ones. A square of the size of 

 twenty feet, planted in this way, will yield three or four bushels 

 annually quite sufficient for a family. The plants are easily 

 procured, and are generally taken up like squares of sod or 

 turf, and planted two or three feet apart, when they quickly 

 cover the whole beds. 



In some parts of New-England, low and coarse meadows, of 

 no value, have been drained and turned to very profitable ac- 

 count, by planting them with this fruit. The average product 

 is from eighty to 100 bushels of cranberries, worth at least one 

 dollar a bushel, and the care they require after the land is once 

 prepared and planted is scarcely any at all, except in gathering. 

 Some of the farms in Massachusetts, yield large crops, partly 

 from natural growth, and partly from cultivated plantations. The 

 " New-England Farmer" states that Mr. Hayden, of Lincoln, 

 Mass., gathered 400 bushels from his farm in 1830. The cran- 

 berry grows wild in the greatest abundance, on the sandy low 

 necks near Barnstable, and an annual cranberry festival is 

 made of the gathering of the fruit, which is done by the mass 

 of the population, who turn out on the day appointed by the au- 

 thorities, and make a general gathering with their cranberry 

 rakes, a certain portion of the crop belonging, and being deli- 

 vered, to the town. 



Capt. Hall, one of the most successful cranberry cultivators 

 of that neighbourhood, thus turns his sandy bogs and rush- 

 covered land to productive beds of cranberry. After draining 

 the land well, and removing all brush, he ploughs the soil 

 where it is possible to do so ; but he usually finds it sufficient 

 to cover the surface with a heavy top-dressing of beach sand, 

 digging holes four feet apart into which he plants sods, or square 

 bunches, of the cranberry roots. These soon spread on every 

 side, overpowering the rushes, and forming a thick coating to 

 the surface. A laborer will gather about thirty bushels of the 

 fruit in a day, with a cranberry rake. 



Cranberry culture would be a profitable business in this 

 neighbourhood, where this fruit is scarce, and, of late years, 

 sells for two or three dollars a bushel. 



