CRANBERRY CROWING 



Cranberries in cultivation, as in the wild, do best on swamp land of 

 muck or peat. The depth of this soil need not be great, a few inches of 

 peat or one layer of turf over sand or clay often giving good results. It 

 does not appear that any peat is essential, for vines grown on sand alone — ■ 

 so-called "hard bottom" — often produce fair crops when fertilized. The 

 soil must be acid. The plants found growing most commonly on good 

 cranberry soil are: sphagnum moss, wild cranberry, leather leaf ("brown 

 brush") (Chamacdaphnc calyculafa Mnench.), sheep laurel (Kalinia aiigusti- 

 folia L.), red maple (Acer ruhrniii L. ), and cedar {Chaiiiaccvparis tlivoidrs 

 BSP.). 



F-'resh meadow and freshened salt marsh sometimes are made into cran- 

 berry bog without turfing, the grass being laid down and covered with 

 about five inches of sand and the vines set out without other jireparation 

 except grading and ditching. Swales and pond bottoms may be used. 

 Such bogs are built cheaply and usually do well. Brush swamps (Fig. 4A) 

 are preferable to wooded ones, for it costs less to clear them. If timbered 

 land is used, the tree stumps must be cut at the roots, pulled or dug out 

 (Fig. 41^), and taken from the bog. A winch and hoist is best for this. 

 Dynamite is often used to blow out stubborn stumps, but the filling of the 

 holes made in soft land is costly. Much labor may have been wastetl on 

 removing stimips, for on old bogs the vines are commonly more thrifty 

 and productive over buried stumps than on areas between them. It may 

 be best, therefore, to cut down the tops of stumps which are hard to re- 

 move and cover them over. 



Location 

 A cranberry bog should be on or near a stream large enough to flood 

 it at any time. If the stream is too small, its capacity for flooding must be 

 increased by making a reservoir above the bog location. 



.A water supply for flooding as 

 much as may be necessary at any 

 time, especially for flooding by 

 gravity, adds greatly to the value 

 of a cranberry property. It is often 

 difficult and costly to arrange for 

 such a water supply in developing 

 a new bog. In this State there are 

 special laws favorable to cranberry 

 growers in this connection. The 

 water of state ponds is often used, 

 under the direction of the Depart- 

 ment of Public Works. 



Many fine bogs are flooded by 



pumping from sti earns or ponds at 



lower levels, a third of the acreage 



in this State being treated in this 



way. The service of reservoirs is 



Fig. 5. A Common Bog Pump Installation. ,,ftcn greatly extended by pumping 



the water used in flooding back into them again and again. Electric 



motors or automobile engines are used in most bog pumping plants. The 



latter are generally preferable, for they are much cheaper to install and 



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