CRANBERRY GROWING 



Drainage 



A bog should be well drained during the growing season. Poor drainage favors 

 weed growth and the rose-bloom disease and probably promotes infestations of 

 the black-headed fireworm and diseases which cause berries to rot both on the 

 bog and in storage. It also curtails the growth of cranberry roots (Fig. 6). The 

 land below the bog should go down rapidly, so that the water may be drawn 

 from the ditches quickly at any time. 



A ditch should be cut entirely around the bog and other ditches dug across it 

 (Figs. 7A and C), dividing it into sections. The marginal ditch prevents 

 upland growths from working onto the bog, keeps many crawling insects off, and 

 is some protection from forest fires. It should be 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. 

 Cranes (Fig. 8B) are often very helpful in digging the ditches and flooding cans Is 

 and in loading sanding cars. The ditches may be dug with dynamite. 



If the drainage from the bog is good, the cross ditches are not important un- 

 less the area is great or the bottom close or springy. They hasten the distribu- 

 tion of water over the entire area in frost flooding and irrigating. Without them, 

 the water tends to pile up for a time at the end of the bog where it is admitted. 

 They usuallj- should be 100 feet or more apart, and are made about 2 feet wide 

 at the top, 1 foot wide at the bottom, and 18 inches deep. One of them (Fig. 73) 

 should be wider than the others and run lengthwise of the bog, in the path of 

 the direct flow from the water supply to the outlet, to hasten flooding and drain- 

 ing. No more ditches should be made than are necessary because they waste 

 land and interfere with bog operations. Tile drains are useful if the bog is hard 

 to drain. 



Grading 



The soil thrown out in ditching may be used in grading. The grading is done 

 by the water line in the ditches. All bogs should be made level, so they may be 

 flooded quickly and with little water, and no swamp that cannot be so graded 

 with moderate expense should be used unless the water supply is very ample. 

 If the swamp is large and much out of level, it is often best to divide it with dams 

 into separate areas (Fig. 7C), each nearly level, at different elevations according 

 to the la}' of the land. This greatly reduces the amount of water required for 

 flooding. A crane reduces the cost greatlv where much grading has to be done 

 (Fig. 8B). 



It should be remembered in building a bog that the deeper any cranberry flood 

 is, the more it harms the vines. 



Preparation of Land 



After the land has been cleared of trees and brush and ditched and drained, it 

 is "turfed" or "scalped" (Fig. 8A). The turf is cut in squares of hand\' size 

 with turf axes (Fig. 9B) and these are turned upside down with turf hooks (Fig. 

 9A) and allowed to dry. The>' are then broken up easily- with a grading hoe 

 (Fig. 9C) and all pieces of roots found in them are burned. Care must be taken 

 at this time to remove from the soil the roots of ferns and of all plants likely to 

 give trouble later as woody weeds, such as horse brier, poison iv^-, leather leaf, 

 hardback, sheep laurel, and chokeberry. 



All work on the land up to sanding should be completed late in the summer or 

 in the fall. 



