166 FRUIT GARDEN. 



The main reason why upland cultivation is so much 

 more expensive than low lands, is its tendency to grass 

 and weed, and the great expense of labor, &c., in weeding 

 and keeping clean. Muck swamps are of not much value 

 for other purposes, but for the Cranberry they are well 

 adapted. 



Grood plants can be had of nurserymen for 50 cents per 

 hundred, and even for 25 to 30 cents where several thou- 

 sands are wanted. The States of Massachusetts and Con- 

 necticut are paying particular attention to the Cranberry 

 at the present time, where it proves to be one of the most 

 profitable crops. 



If the plants are 18 inches apart, 19,000 plants will 

 cover an acre ; if two feet 10,000, and if two and a half 

 feet, 7,000. 



But where there is a pond, it may be cultivated with 

 the greater success. On the margin of -the pond stakes 

 are driven in a short way within the water line ; boards 

 are so placed against these as to prevent the soil of the 

 Cranberry bed from falling into the water. A layer of 

 small stones is deposited in the bottom, and over these peat 

 or bog earth, mixed with sand, to the extent of about three 

 or four inches above, and half a foot below the usual sur- 

 face of the water. Plants of the American Cranberry 

 placed on this bed soon cover the whole surface with a 

 dense matting of trailing shoots. There is a variety which 

 is very shy in yielding its fruit, and this should, of course, 

 be avoided. If the prolific variety be employed, from a 

 bed thirty or forty feet in length, by five or six in breadth, 

 a quantity of berries may be procured sufficient for the 

 supply of a family throughout the year. The fruit is easily 

 preserved in bottles. The native Cranberry (Oxycoccus 

 palustris) may be treated in the same manner, and in some 



