CRANBERRY GROWING 21 



CARE OF A NEWLY PLANTED BOG 



Water should be put on right after planting, held near ihe surface a day or so 

 to wet the vines and pack the sand around them, and then drained to the bottoms 

 of the ditches. If the bog is flowed again the first season, it should be only for a 

 day or two to wet the sand or control insects. 



New bogs should be flooded for the winter as soon as the ground begins to 

 freeze, for frost in the soil heaves new sets out. The surplus water must be let 

 of? at times of thaws or heav\- rains in winter or early spring. If this is neglected 

 with the vines frozen into the ice, the raising of the ice will pull them out of the 

 ground. 



The first three years the winter flowage should be let off about May 5. Earlier 

 removal exposes the plants to possible frost hea\ing. 



More weeds grow on a bog the first two or three years than later, for the vines 

 have not grown enough to crowd them. They give relatively little trouble after- 

 ward if they are kept down then. A grower should know the weeds he has to 

 fight at this time, for it is enough to mow the tops of some kinds (most rushes), 

 and some (rice cut-grass) can be checked by good drainage, while others must be 

 rooted out or killed with salt (ferns, brambles, hardhack, leatherleaf, and sheei> 

 laurel) or kerosene (grasses and sedges). Upland weeds often appear on new 

 plantings; they need not be heeded, for they will die in the winter flood. Weeds 

 along the ditches may be treated with dry salt. 



After the first year and before it comes to bearing, the new planting should be 

 flooded several times each season to check insect pests. 



Constant roguing is necessary the first three years to remove plants of odd 

 varieties and hills with false blossom. 



The new bog should be resanded with two thirds of an inch of sand right after 

 the first crop is gathered to make the vines develop a strong root system and 

 become well anchored. 



It costs $400 to S800 an acre to care for a new bog till it crops. 



CARE OF A BEARING BOG 



A new planting usually comes to bearing the fourth \ear, and its care there- 

 after is described below. 



The Use of Water for Flooding 



Cranberry vines often winterkill, sometimes to the ground, when exposed for 

 a week or more to drying winds with the soil around their roots frozen. This is 

 due to desiccation, the plants being unable under these conditions to replace the 

 water given off by the leaves. It usually occurs before midwinter but may occur 

 at any time from early December to late March. Flooding for the winter is the 

 best protection. 



The winter flowage should go on as soon as the sand surface remains frozen 

 all day, usually about December 1 on the Cape. The water should be held just 

 deep enough to cover the vines. It is often best to let the highest parts stick out 

 a little when a bog is much out of level. The vines are as well protected frozen 

 into the ice as any way, though sometimes they are pulled badly if they are not 

 well anchored and if the ice is thick and is lifted by water. Heavy ice sometimes 

 does some harm by breaking off the vines where it cracks; this injur\- appears in 

 the spring as though a cleaver had severed the vines and cut into the ground be- 

 neath them 



