CRANBERRIES. 105 



barrels, whicli yielded about 88 per barrel. This year we 

 gathered nearly fifty barrels, which we have not yet sold, but 

 from present appearailces, we shall probably realize something 

 like |8 per barrel. 



" The cost of clearing the swamp and setting the vines, as 

 near as we can come at it, has been nearly $500. The result 

 after three years' crops, is something like the following : — 



Leaving a balance of, . . . . 8505 00 



" We would add that the vines are now in fine condition, and 

 promise to do as well for the future as they have done for the 

 past three years." 



The first premium, 815, is awarded to Messrs. Gifford & 

 Loring. 



Mr. Hadley had also been a successful cultivator of cranber- 

 ries before commencing upon that portion of his meadow which 

 he entered for premium. His experiments have been made 

 partly upon salt marsh, protected from the intrusion of the sea 

 by a dike. His location gives him advantages not possessed by 

 many other cultivators. A considerable portion of the surface 

 is cleared and levelled to his hand, in advance, saving him the 

 large preparatory outlay necessary in most situations in this 

 county where experiments have been made. After exposure 

 to the rains for a few years the marsh becomes so far divested 

 of its saline properties that vines set in the pure peat will grow 

 rapidly, overpower the native grasses, and produce fruit com- 

 paring favorably with that grown upon the most carefully pre- 

 pared meadows. In fact, some of the finest berries noticed 

 upon his grounds were upon vines thus set and left to fight their 

 own way into possession. If he chooses to sand his meadows 

 before setting the vines he has an inexhaustible supply of excel- 

 lent gray sand below the peat, which he can obtain by sinking 

 small pits wherever necessary, to be afterwards filled with other 

 material, care being taken to give the surface as nearly as pos- 



14* 



