have carefully managed the planting, growing, harvesting and 

 marketing of the crop have proved to be public benefactors. 



To such magnitude has the cultivation of the fruit in south- 

 eastern New England grown that the crop harvested this year is 

 estimated at 225,000 barrels, while the crop of New Jersey and the 

 entire west is only estimated at 115,000 barrels. The New 

 England crop alone returns to its growers, and those who are 

 employed in the harvesting and shipping of the fruit, over 

 $1,200,000. While the yield in individual cases is ofttimes very 

 large, the average yield is probably not over twenty-five or thirty 

 barrels per acre per year. From a lot of one and one-quarter 

 acres there have been harvested during the last thirteen years 924 

 barrels, or an average of about 56 barrels per acre per year. From 

 another lot of eight acres there have been gathered during the last 

 ten years 2,395 barrels, or an average of about 30 barrels per acre. 

 The past season, from a lot of less than one hundred and forty 

 rods, I have seen 148 barrels of fruit harvested, but such yields 

 as this are not common. 



The south-eastern portion of New England is especially well 

 adapted to the crop, because frosts in that section seldom occur of 

 sufficient severity to injure the berries before October 1 and many 

 seasons not earlier than October 15. The land selected should 

 have a peat or muck bottom, a site covered with trees or bushes 

 being preferable to a grass growing turf. The poorer the soil 

 about this swamp the better ; a very light sandy soil upon a sub- 

 soil of coarse sand rising abruptly from the edge of the swamp 

 should be selected. A careful survey should be made to ascertain 

 if the water level can be lowered from one and one-half to two feet 

 below the surface ; if this cannot be done the swamp is not desir- 

 able for the cultivation of the fruit. 



If a natural reservoir is not at hand care should be taken to 

 secure one above the level of the swamp, if possible, that the 

 bog may be flooded during the winter season to protect from severe 

 freezing, and during the spring and fall to destroy insects, of 

 which we shall speak later. If a reservoir cannot be secured 

 above the level of the land to be worked, ofttimes a nearby lake 

 or large pond may be drawn upon, and if below the level of the lot 

 to be planted an engine and large pump may be used with which 

 the flooding can be done. 



The lot having been selected, the trees and larger bushes should 

 be cut about and their stumps tipped out by the aid of their tops 

 and some mechanical power, a four-fold tackle being generally 

 sufficient though a stump puller is sometimes used. The larger 

 wood is taken to the adjoining upland, the stumps, brush and roots 



