32 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



wet lands. In removing the plants, it is best to take up a sod 

 of earth with them, carefully picking out the grass. These may 

 be set in a bed, prepared like one for strawberries, in rows 

 twelve or eighteen inches apart, and as the vines extend by 

 sending out runners, they should be covered with earth to 

 cause them to take root. Care should be taken to keep the bed 

 free from weeds and grass. The plants of the cranberry under 

 cultivation, need protection in winter. This, it will be rec- 

 ollected, they always receive in their wild state in the mead- 

 ows, by the overflowing of them by water. They are best pro- 

 tected by covering them with the boughs of some evergreen 

 tree or shrub. I prefer for this purpose the prostrate branches 

 of the juniper, called by some persons ground hemlock. When 

 this cannot be obtained, meadow hay, sea weed, or litter may 

 be used. When the vines are covered with the boughs of some 

 evergreen tree, the fruit can be kept on them in a very fresh 

 and excellent state, during winter, and used as required. 



I was somewhat surprised to find my cranberries the past 

 season, infested by an insect unknown to me. These, resem- 

 bling a worm or maggot, were discovered in the berries when 

 about half grown, eating out its pulp, and destroying, I should 

 think, half of my crop. Several of the cranberries, containing 

 worms, were sent to Dr. Thaddeus W. Harris, the distinguished 

 entomologist, who, in reply, informed me that he found the in- 

 sects to resemble closely the well known " apple worm," and 

 adds, "the question of their identity, however, can be settled 

 by keeping them, till they undergo their transformations." 



In closing this communication, I would say, that what I 

 have written upon the cultivation of the cranberry, has come 

 under my own observation, and is confined to garden culture. 

 What the cranberry would do, with its delicate fibrous or hairy 

 root, adapted to a sandy peat or a sphagnous bog, when trans- 

 planted to a dry soil, in an open field, with nothing to protect 

 its roots from the frosts of winter, is more than I can say. 

 Those persons who have had much experience in the cultiva- 

 tion of native plants, found growing in swampy, or very wet 

 land, will have noticed, that many plants will accommodate 

 themselves to a comparatively dry soil, and the cranberry may 



