The Small Fruits. 175 



6, Study in the plantation the insects and diseases af- 

 fecting the strawberry plant. 



7. Practice picking and packing the fruit of the straw- 

 berry. 



Section 4-— The Cranlernj 



265. The cranberry differs from other temperate fruit 

 plants in being partially aquatic in habit. In its wild 

 «tate it thrives best in peat marshes so located that they 

 are submerged during the freezing part of the year, and in 

 which the water level lowers to a foot or two below the 

 soil surface during the warm season. If the water contains 

 time in solution, the plants are rarely permanently pro- 

 ductive. In culture, the cranberry can only be grown 

 successfully Avhen its environment is very similar to that 

 which surrounds the productive wild marshes. 



But one species of the cranberry has been cultivated to 

 :any large extent, viz., the large or American cranberry 

 iVaccinium macrocarpon). This species is native from 

 Virginia northward, and westward to Wisconsin. The 

 plant is creeping, with slender, scarcely-woody stems 

 t)earing small evergreen leaves. 



266. Fruiting: habit. The flowers are borne on slender 

 shoots that grow from wood of the preceding year. The 

 flower-buds form in autumn, mostly in the terminal buds 

 ot these shoots, but the latter grow on the next season, so 

 that the flowers become axillary as in the grape. The 

 fruit ripens in autumn, and, in some varieties, keeps until 

 spring. 



267. Cultural ran§:e. The cranberry is chiefly culti- 

 vated in Northern United States and Canada, and since its 



