AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 341 



THE CRANBERRY. 



Cranberries may be raised on any moist land by covering 

 rig. 212. the space to be planted with 



a thick coat of swamp muck, 

 and setting the plants in it at 

 afoot or eighteen inches apart, 

 according to their strength. 

 Keep them perfectly clean un- 

 til they obtain possession ; 

 they will then take care of 

 themselves, keeping out all 

 other growth, and yielding 

 their fruit abundantly, which 

 is usually gathered with a pe- 

 culiar box-rake, known as the 

 cranberry-rake. Top-dressing 

 with well-rotted compost after 

 the crop is gathered improves 

 both the quantity and quality of succeeding crops. It is said 

 that they can also be well raised on dry soils, but probably 

 would require increased labor, with smaller return for it, their 

 natural home being moist bog meadows. 



CURRANTS. 



Of varieties there are the Black Naples, the Red and the 

 White Dutch, or common, and certain other inferior varieties 

 or mixtures of these, and still others larger fruiting and later, 

 but more acid and less worthy of cultivation. The recently- 

 introduced cherry currant is produced somewhat after the man- 

 ner of the Black Naples, bearing its large fruit upon short 

 bunches ; the seeds are rather large, and the quality of the 

 fruit only fair, but it is a showy, and, on the whole, a desirable 

 variety. 



Though one of the most valuable of our small summer fruits, 

 if not, indeed, more useful than any other, currants are scarce- 

 ly subjects of cultivation ; for this implies more than merely 

 planting in a corner or by a fence, and gathering the product 



