54 ON CRANBERRIES, 



lost to the cultivator even the first year, mcleed that the bean crop 

 has defrayed a large part of the expense. 



The cranberry vmes had put out runners in many cases from three 

 to four feet long, and have all the marks and numbers of health and 

 vigor. Sand was applied to about one half of the hills, but without 

 any apparent advantage whatever. The attention of the committee 

 was called particularly to this fact, because the experiments in Barn- 

 stable county seem to have been all made with sand, and it is there 

 thought and declared to be indispensable. 



There was no artificial watering. The cranberry sods were taken 

 up, as appears by the statement below, on the 15th of May, and set 

 out on the 16th, 18th and 19th. The undersigned is informed by 

 Asa Lamson Esq., of Salem, that there Avas in that month, 

 (May) but two and seven-eighths inches of rain. It could not 

 have been the presence of water then, that caused every root with 

 out a single failure to live, and nearly every one to produce berries. 



It should be borne in mind, however, by way of caution, that 

 there has been more wet weather during the last six months, than 

 the average of the previous four years, or indeed any one of them. 

 The whole quantity during the months of May, June July, Au- 

 gust, September and October last, is 25 3-4 inches ; while during 

 the same months in 1846, there was but 15 7-8 inches; though in 

 1845 the quantity was as great as this year, Avanting 2 1-2 inches. 



It should be recollected too, that this is the first year, and what 

 the effect of the winter will be without the indispensable presence of 

 water, as the Yarmouth Register would say, remains to be seen. 

 At present, the vines flourish like a green bay tree, and this, per- 

 haps, is enough for the Committee to say. The fact that the roots 

 could be taken dripping from their native meadow bed, on the 15th 

 day of May, put into a cornfield soil, and then Avith nothing but 

 the rain of Heaven upon them, in five short months to take root 

 downward, and bear fruit upward, is most extraordinary. A spec- 

 imen of the fruit is with the Committee, and it appears to be as 

 good as the uncultivated fruit of the meadows. The quantity, as 

 will be seen by the statement below, is one bushel and thirteen 

 quarts. The land Avas carefully measured, by the undersigned, 

 and found to contain 120 rods. It ought to be added here that the 

 field exhibits a case of clean culture ; weeds and grass have both 

 yielded to the hoe. 



