1846.J rianting Cranberries. 123 



but one instance where cranberries were sown. The experiment 

 was successful, and the ground is now thickly set with vines. 



The best time for setting the vines, we are unable to state. 

 The common practice has been to set them at any time when the 

 weather would admit, from March to November. The spring we 

 should think was preferable for sowing. 



During the first season after they are set, vines frequently put 

 forth numerous runners four or five feet long. The next year the 

 runners put forth upright bearing stems, which produce cranber- 

 ries on the third year. The vines do not usually become so thick 

 set as to cover the ground before the fifth year. 



Manure is worse than useless, and any vegetable or animal 

 matter that will cause fermentation is injurious. As a general rule 

 more barren the surface of the soil the better it is adapted to the 

 growth of the cranberry. The growth of the grasses in such sit- 

 uations will be feeble, while the cranberry obtaining its suste- 

 nance mainly from water and the atmosphere, grows luxuriantly 

 and will ultimately kill out the grasses and obtain complete pos- 

 session of the soil. 



During the first three years it is better to pull out the grasses 

 than to wait for the cranberry vines to overcome them. Bushes 

 must be carefully removed as fast as they spring up, because if 

 suffered to grow they would do great injury. No other attention 

 is necessary, excepting that good fences must be maintained 

 around the vines to prevent the depredations of herbaceous ani- 

 mals. 



Profits. — One bushel of cranberries to the square rod may be 

 considered a good crop from vines that have been set five years, 

 though we could cite particular instances in which three and four 

 bushels have been obtained. Raising cranberries is like every 

 other business in life; if a man judges rightly, is prudent and in- 

 dustrious, he will commonly succeed; but if he depends more on 

 good luck than on good management, in nine cases out of ten he 

 will fail. The cranberry fever is now running high among us, 

 and almost every man you meet exhibits some symptoms of the 

 disease. That fortunes are suddenly to be made by all who em- 

 bark in this business we do not believe; but that large profits can 

 be obtained from vines set in good situations, such as are above 

 described, there is no doubt. The experiment of Capt. Henry 

 Hall, Hiram Hall, and Peter Hall of Dennis; of Capt. Edward 

 B. Hallett and Edward Thacher, of this town, and many others 

 that could be named, prove that the raising of cranberries in good 

 situations is a profitable business. 



We know that some of the opinions which we have given in 

 this article will militate against the theories of a few of our 

 friends; but we cannot help it. We have carefully examined al- 



