154 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and the profits derived from the culture, in some towns, amount 

 to a considerable income, estimated the present year, in one of 

 the towns on the Cape, at more than twenty-five thousand dol- 

 lars. Nine lots of cranberries were offered for premiums, and 

 owing to the uniform excellence of the fruit, the committee 

 found it exceedingly difficult to decide to which the prizes 

 ought to be assigned. Places favorable for the culture of this 

 fruit are to be seen throughout the county, and it is to be 

 hoped that the owners will be awake to their interests, and 

 commence the culture without delay. 



Charles Burton, Chairman. 



Statement of Ephraim Stetson on Cranberries. 



My cranberry meadow, which now measures one acre and 

 sixty-three rods, was formerly a cedar swamp, the surface being 

 but a few inches above the level of an adjoining pond. I think 

 it is now too wet, although I have raised the surface somewhat ; 

 but I cannot drain it as the ditches are always nearly full of 

 water. I began to clear the swamp in 1857, and to set vines in 

 1859, and I have set from twenty to sixty rods per year sijice. 

 I have removed the trees, stumps, and bushes, and, in some 

 places, the turf and moss, and covered with gravel from five to 

 sixteen inches deep, as was requisite to secure a uniform level. 

 The vines of the first year's setting were lifted from the ground, 

 by the ice, during the first winter, and they have grown but 

 little since. The others have done well, but they are not yet 

 old enough to be very productive. The fruit now on the vines, 

 though not abundant, looks finely. I think there will be from 

 ten to fifteen bushels. I have kept the land entirely free from 

 grass and weeds, having devoted most of my time for the last 

 five years to preparing the land and cultivating the vines. I 

 think I iiave spent nearly a thousand days' work in this way. 



Halifax, September 15, 1863. 



Statement of Henry M. Allen. 

 ■I had, near my dwelling in the town of Marion, a small piece 

 • of very thick, rocky swamp, which I felt anxious to subdue and 

 bring under cultivation. I finally decided to clear it off and 

 plant cranberries. I cleared it entirely of rocks, trees and turf, 

 ■then levelled it, and ditched it, and covered it with white swamp 

 ■sand from two and one-half to four inches thick, and planted 



