ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 507 



tion, and surround the bed with litter or 

 boards to protect it from the piercing 

 winds. The seeds vegetate quickly, and 

 soon grow into strong plants. During 

 their growth, admit air every day at the 

 back of the frame, giving as much light 

 as possible to the young plants. 



CRANBERRY, Culture of.— In prepar- 

 ing a plantation the surface must first be 

 cleared of the wood, timber, or brush ; 

 then it must be "turfed" — that is, the sur- 

 face-soil and roots must be taken off with 

 a hoe made for that purpose. The next 

 step is to ditch it, by clearing out the main 

 water-course and digging side drains run- 

 ning into it — generally in deep bottom- 

 lands, about one and a half or two rods 

 apart, but the distance should be varied 

 in accordance to the nature of the ground. 

 The floats removed in turfing are used for 

 leveling up low places where needed, so 

 that the surface may be slightly rounded 

 between the side drains; they are also 

 used for building the dam, which is con- 

 structed with two walls of floats filled in 

 with sand, a ditch having first been cut 

 between them to the sand beneath ; the 

 solid filling makes it water-tight. 



After turfing and ditching, muck bot- 

 toms must be sanded from the depth of 

 from four to six inches with pure sand, 

 without mixture of clay or loam, and it 

 should be taken from a sufficient depth 

 below the surface to avoid seeds. The 

 silex imparted to the vine from the sand 

 stiffens it, materially promotes its pro- 

 ductiveness, and tends also to prevent the 

 growth of weeds. Many experiments 

 have been made to ascertain the proper 

 depths to which the sand should be ap- 

 plied ; where little or none is used the 

 vines grow long and slender, and do not 

 fruit so well as when sanded. While 

 some have thought two inches sufficient, 

 others have tried a thickness of twelve or 

 more, and with good results — though 

 with this amount the vines make a slower 

 growth, on account of the length of 

 time for the rootlets to reach the peat 

 beneath, from which they draw 

 their support. Most cultivators have 

 concluded that from four to six inches, 

 and resanding every few years with a 

 layer of from one to two inches, is prefera- 

 ble to using a much larger quantity at first. 



After sanding, the vines are set in rows 

 about twenty inches apart, and but a 



moderate quantity of vine should be used 

 for each hill. This is the usual method, 

 though the distance is often varied each 

 way. A gentleman, one of the original 

 cultivators, from recent experiments has 

 concluded that the vines should not be 

 set over a foot apart, and that the addi- 

 tional cost of the vines, etc., will be more 

 than paid for by earlier and larger 

 crops, as well as by the matting of 

 the vines, in much less than the 

 usual time, which keeps down the 

 other vegetation, and saves labor and 

 expense in cleaning. Another has suc- 

 cessfully adopted the method of layering 

 the vines, or placing them in furrows in 

 the sand, with which they are entirely 

 covered to the depth of about one and a 

 half inches. Vines grow finely by this 

 method, but great care must be taken, to 

 keep them moist. Wild vines have 

 generally been preferred to cultivated ones 

 for setting, from the fact that they appear 

 to grow more vigorously at first, especially 

 if the season is a very dry one. 



Savanna-land can be plowed, and does 

 not need sanding ; this is a great saving 

 of expense, but as large crops cannot be 

 expected as from bottom-lands. Where 

 possible on land of this kind, the turf 

 not needed for the dam should be plowed 

 or dug under the sand, as it is often the 

 richest part of the soil, and is well adapted 

 to the growth of the plant. 



Plantations should be well flowed from 

 December until May. The water fertil- 

 izes the vines, protects them from frost, 

 and is the only reliable remedy known 

 for the vine-worm, which is one of our 

 worst enemies. It is thought that the 

 water where held on the vines until the 

 10th or 15th of May, destroys the eggs 

 deposited on the leaves the previous year; 

 hence the advantage not only of late 

 but of thorough flowing, as the portions- 

 not flowed often constitute a hatching- 

 ground for the worms, from which they 

 spread to the adjoining grounds, though 

 it has been noticed that they apparently 

 prefer not to go much beyond the 

 water-line if they can find sufficient vines 

 that have not been flowed. 



GOOSEBERRY BUSHES, Mildew on.— 

 A weak solution of saleratus, pretty 

 strongly tinctured with alum, sprinkled 

 over gooseberry bushes, is sure to prevent 

 mildew. 



