SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



103 



thousand dollars from a single acre. I might name many 

 others who have realized nearly as large profits. At the pres- 

 ent time the man who carefully collects the information which 

 has been gradually acquired during fifty years of experiment, 

 may as safely rely on a profit from his investment as any farmer 

 can from any other cultivated crop. This is strong language ; 

 but the facts will bear me out in its use. Can a single instance 

 of failure be pointed out, where the mode of culture I describe 

 has been carefully followed. I know of no single ""instance, 

 and I have examined many bogs for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the correctness of the theory and practice now recommended. 

 I have endeavored to sift out from voluminous statements the 

 facts that are of value, and I will now recapitulate them in a 

 form easily retained in the memory. 



1. The cranberry cannot be successfully cultivated on the 

 Drift Formation, that is on a soil composed of clay or loam. 



2. There must be the means of draining the bog, eighteen 

 inches below the general surface. 



3. All bushes, wild grasses, and roots must be pared off". 



4. If the soil does not naturally consist of sand and an 

 admixture of peaty matter, it must be artificially corrected ; if 

 peat, by putting on beach sand, or sand composed of fine parti- 

 cles of quartz rock ; and if of pure sand by adding peaty matter. 



5. It is desirable, but not essential, to have the command of 

 water, so that the water in the ditches can be raised within 

 twelve inches of the surface at any time, and also in sufficient 

 quantity to flood the bog in the winter and spring. 



Cranherries raised in Barnstable County, 1863, and the prices for which 

 they were sold per barrel. 



