302 



Cranberries. 



Vol. VIII. 



Cranberries. 



Messrs. Editors, — On Monday last, I 

 went in company with Capt. E. B. Hallet, 

 to North Dennis, to examine the Cranberry 

 Yards, and obtain information respecting" 

 the mode of cultivation. We called on 

 Capt. Henry Hale, who went round with us 

 and showed us his grounds, and gave us 

 Buch information as we desired. 



He had been engaged in the cultivation 

 of the cranberry forty years. Near his 

 house was a swampy piece of land, sepa- 

 rated from the sea-shore by a tract of sandy 

 land. This tract being easily cultivated, 

 was planted till its productive powers were 

 e.xhausted, and was then letl without pro- 

 tection, and the loose sand was blown about 

 by the winds and covered up a large part of 

 the swamp. Capt. Hall stated that the first 

 vines he saw, was on that part of the swamp 

 covered by the sand. These he protected 

 against cattle by a rail fence. A part of 

 the vines he took up with a spade, and set 

 within the enclosure, and on the fourth year, 

 he gathered four bushels of cranberries, 

 being at the rate of a bushel and a half to 

 the square rod. 



The success of this small experiment in- 

 duced him to continue to transplant vines. 

 That part of the swamp on which no sand] 

 had blown, he covered to the depth of six! 

 inches, and his Cranberry Yard now con- 

 tains an acre and a quarter, thickly set with 

 vines. His average annual crop, for the 

 last thirty years, has been one hundred 

 bushels. In 1839 he picked 215 bushels; 

 but in 1843, he had only 70. The crop hav- 

 ing been injured by the dry weather. His 

 present annual expenses are, two days' la- 

 bour cutting up bayberry sprouts and briers, 

 and twenty-five cents per bushel, for picking. 

 Capt. Hall estimated the whole expense 

 of draining, carting on the sand, procuring 

 and setting out the vines, at $80 per acre. 

 He spreads beach sand* six inches thick 

 over the swamp, or meadow, and sets the 

 hills of vines about three feet apart: spring 

 or fall is a suitable time for setting. The 

 vines should be dug up with a spade and cut 

 into sods about six inches square, and set 

 level with the surface of the land. The 

 first year after they are set, the vines will 

 ustjally spread from hill to hill, but it re- 

 quires three years in favourable situations 

 for them to !)ecome thick set, and be in Sfood 

 condition for bearing. The cranberry plant 

 seems to derive most of its nourishment 

 from the atmosphere and water, for it pro- 

 duces better on loose sand well saturated 



with water, than on the richest soils. The 

 cultivators are not agreed on the point, whe- 

 ther in preparing lands for the cranberry, it 

 is, or is not better to spread a little soil over 

 the sand. Most think it is not advisable. 

 They say when soil is put on, more grasses 

 spring up, and it takes a longer time for the 

 cranberry vines to kill out the grass and 

 rushes, and obtain complete possession of 

 the surface. On the other hand it is said, 

 where soil is spread on, the vines will do 

 better the first year. 



Captain Hall can plough his cranberry 

 grounds. His custom is to let the water re- 

 main on the vines till May. The cranberry 

 blossoms about the 20th of June, and the 

 crop would be destroyed if the water re- 

 mained till that time. It is said that plough- 

 ing a few days in July, will prevent the 

 cranberries from being wormy. 



On account of the frost and water, we 

 were unable to examine the subsoil of the 

 cranberry grounds as we intended. On 

 Capt. Hall's, the subsoil is sand mixed with 

 decayed vegetable matter and mud. He 

 has made an experiment on a peat soil, but 

 did not succeed well. He set an eighth of 

 an acre, and one year he had twenty bushels 

 of cranberries thereon, but the crop failed so 

 often that he has abandoned the yard. 



Mr. Peter Hall's and Mr. Reuben Hall's 

 Cranberry yards adjoin. Before the land 

 was drained, it was covered with rushes and 

 coarse grass. The soil contained no peat. 

 Mr. Peter Hall, a year ago last autumn, set 

 thirty rods. He first put on six inches of 

 beach sand over the rushes, and then spread 

 on two inches of sandy soil. He cut his 

 sods six inches square and set them three 

 feet apart, and the vines ran from hill to hili 

 last season, and look very promising. 



A part of Mr. Reuben Hall's yard has 

 been set five years, and the vines look finely 

 and last year produced a bushel to the square 

 rod. He has half an acre, and flows them 

 in the winter. 



Mr. John Hall has about half an acre set 

 in beach sand on the margin of a pond. In 

 some places the peat is mixed with tne 

 sand. The vines set a year ago look well. 

 Many others in Dennis and in other 

 towns, cultivate the cranberry with success, 

 but as all manage uniformly it is unneces- 

 sary to give further particulars. Mr. Tho- 

 mas Shiverick and others, have filled up 

 more than acre at the lowest end of Scargo 

 pond, for cranberry yards. They have put 

 up a bulk head in the pond six rods from the 

 shore, where the water is three feet deep, and 

 have filled in the part enclosed with a sand,f 



* Pulverized silex. 



-f Granite sand. 



