254 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



But in a wider and more popular sense, cultivated cranberry 

 vines are those upon which only the labor of transplanting from 

 the fresh meadow has been bestowed, no less than those under 

 a course of treatment similar to that above described. 



As the subject to some is not without interest, permit me, in 

 conclusion, to suggest what would seem to be a good mode of 

 raising the cranberry. It is this : Select for the purpose a 

 deep vegetable soil, pare and remove the turf from its surface, 

 dress, if practicable, with fine sand, (not soil) or some better 

 material; set the plants, giving them fair working distance, 

 and then, for the space of two or three years, use all diligence 

 to help them to hold and occupy, not, in any sense, as common- 

 ers or copartners with other products, but as sole tenants, 

 which they will not be backward in seeking to become. I will 

 only add, that if the waters of any small stream near at hand 

 can be so controlled as to throw a thin sheet over the surface, 

 during winter, and occasionally, perhaps, for a brief while, at 

 other times, to refresh and invigorate its occupants, and prevent 

 injury from frost, which sometimes happens, it would be a 

 desideratum, connected with the object in view, of much im- 

 portance. 



John E. Howard, Supervisor. 



Statement of Thomas H. Samson. 



Having entered my claim for " the greatest quantity of cul- 

 tivated cranberry vines on not less than an acre of land," I 

 beg leave to present the subjoined " particular account of my 

 several operations." 



In the summer of 1845, I commenced preparing about half 

 an acre of swamp land for the cultivation of cranberries ; it 

 was completely covered with whortleberry bushes and alders ; 

 these were removed to the upland, and the tussocks and the 

 top of the soil were removed, and early in the spring of 1846, 

 I set out about one-fourth of the lot with cranberry vines, without 

 any dressing. In the spring of 1847, I set out about the same 

 quantity, and about the same in 1848, a part of which was 

 dressed with gravel and soil. In the spring of 1 849, I com- 

 pleted the half acre, covering the last with a dressing of gravel 



