314 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 



sent me one thousand roots, which were the upright sprouts, 

 for three dollars. I set them in rows about two feet apart one 

 way and six inches the other, on the 20th of May, 1847. But 

 one sprout died, though they had been out of the ground ten 

 days, and were set out so late. The same fall I got about one 

 pint of fruit from them. The runners began to run, but in the 

 spring of 1848 the frost hove them nearly out of the ground. 

 I set them on another patch ; they have nearly all lived and 

 look well. What they will ultimately do I know not, it is 

 only an experiment. Mr. Bates writes me that the fruit is 

 much larger and of a richer flavor than the common cherry 

 cranberry, and can be raised on low moist upland, where it is 

 not too low to raise potatoes. 



Besides cultivating the above patches, I have ploughed and 

 harrowed about one-eighth of an acre, thinking to kill the 

 grass in this way, but found it impossible as there was so small 

 a portion of the time I could work on account of the water. I 

 carted off the sods and set the vines in the same way as in the 

 first patch, with the exception of the sand and manure. They 

 look well and have run from hill to hill, although they were set 

 out, a part of them as late as the first of June, 1848, and the 

 rest in September following. 



I have taken some pains to ascertain the different varieties of 

 cranberries, I have found four, viz. : the bell, or upland cran- 

 berry ; the common, or cherry cranberry ; the Barberry cran- 

 berry, and the Tree cranberry. Of the Tree cranberry I know 

 but little. I have gathered some information from a gentleman 

 from the town of Livermore, Maine, who has seen the tree in 

 that town in is natural state, loaded with fruit. I am led to 

 think that it would not be profitable for us to cultivate it, ex- 

 -cept as a curiosity. I am of the opinion that the common 

 cherry cranberry, which grows in our meadows, is the best 

 that we can cultivate. 



The barberry cranbeny is not very plenty ; it is some- 

 times found in low pasture land, resembles the barberry in 

 shape, and has rather a bitter taste. It is said to be good for 

 some medical purposes. The bell cranberry sometimes grows 

 among the cherry cranberries, and the vines cannot be dis- 



