CRANBERRIES. 249 



every situation and kind of soil this fern would supplant 

 the vine, although in this case it did. I have several small 

 plats of ground besides, one containing some fifty square 

 rods, the turf containing the roots of the buckthorn. I cut 

 in strips about fifteen inches wide and set it up edge-wise to 

 dry. These were burnt when dry, and the ashes carried to 

 the compost heap, as they are not needed on this soil. 



These plats were set with sods, with most excellent success ; 

 one-half rod gave me this season one bushel of berries, which 

 is at the rate of at least three hundred and twenty bushels to 

 the acre. These experiments show clearly that the plant can- 

 not be set in this grass with any prospect of success. There 

 is another kind of grass called polly pod, also small brake, 

 dryopteris ihelypleris, which, as far as I have seen where it 

 covers the ground, casts so much shade that the vine cannot 

 succeed in it. It is more easily pulled up than the buckthorn ;, 

 and when dried and burned, vines may be set with good results. 



There is another kind called by some the broad-leaved 

 sword-grass, and by others broad-grass, and by botanists wooU 

 grass, scirpus eriophoruni. It grows in round plats or clumps, 

 varying in diameter from three feet to twelve feet. In the 

 piece I presented to you for examination there are several plats 

 of this grass which show that the vine cannot take root in it. 



Upon this same piece of ground is another kind of grass cov- 

 ering some two rods called carex lacustris, a coarse kind of 

 sedge grass ; its general appearance does not diflFer from wool- 

 grass, the blades of which are not so thickly set in the soil as 

 the wool-grass, yet so much so that the vine succeeds with 

 difficulty. 



The other kind of grass in this piece is called carex fiUformis, 

 a kind of sedge grass and water grass. This grows in wet 

 places, throwing a less number of blades which cast less shade, 

 and when mown there is less stubble than any other kind of 

 grass I have noticed. On the whole, the vines have flourished 

 quite as well in this as in any other grass, although my suc- 

 cess has been equally good on one piece of hassock and sedge 

 grass. 



On another plat which was covered with hassocks I set sods 

 between them which have nearly disappeared, the hassocks 

 32* 



