394 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



that destroys our grass roots, and is, I believe, of the same 

 family. Flooding the plantations to the level of the surface 

 during August and September will usually check their 

 depredations. 



Many bogs are inclined to produce an excessive growth 

 of vines, which in a few years become brittle, and many of 

 them die. To renew these and produce a healthy growth 

 of bearing shoots, thinning or pruning is practised. The 

 tool for this purpose is of about the size and shape of a 

 common wooden hand hay rake, having a steel head, to 

 which four or live knives for teeth are attached. These 

 knives or teeth are about three inches lono- and are set 

 about six inches apart in the head. The implement in use 

 is drawn toward you like a hay rake, and in this way quite 

 a portion of the vines are cut away. 



If the vines have not been trimmed and have made an ex- 

 cessive growth, which is in places dead or very brittle, it is 

 sometimes advisable to burn over the bog during the late 

 autumn. Burnino- at this season does not affect the roots 



O 



(if the ground is wet nearly to the surface), and a new 

 growth of healthy vines may be expected, which will usually 

 fruit the second or third year after. An inch or two of 

 fresh sand spread among the old vines will encourage a new 

 growth and add life to the plantation. This is best applied 

 in the late autumn, after the fruit is harvested, when the 

 winter flooding will settle it among the vines. If not done 

 before the water is frozen, if spread upon the ice it will drop 

 into place when spring comes. 



If the soil has a tendency to be hard and compact, and 

 the vines fail to make a healthy growth, a light dressing of 

 commercial fertilizer is sometimes used with very beneficial 

 results ; one containing a large per cent of potash and phos- 

 phoric acid is to be used rather than one high in nitrogen. 

 An application of from 300 to 500 pounds per acre is usu- 

 ally sufficient. 



There are at present quite a number of varieties of cran- 

 berry commonly grown, though three or four only produce 

 75 per cent of the crop marketed. Probably fully one-half 

 of the fruit in Barnstable and Plymouth counties is of the 



