176 Zcsso7is in Fruit Gi'owing. 



successful culture is limited to soft-water marshes, it can 

 hardly become extensively grown as compared with our 

 other cultivated fruits. It is at present most grown on 

 the peninsula of Cape Cod, in parts of New Jersey, Maine 

 and Wisconsin, and in Nova Scotia. 



268. Culture. The highestsuccessin cranberry culture re- 

 quires not only the proper soil with abundance of soft water, 

 but the power to control the water supply at all seasons of 

 the year. The ability to drain the plantation during the 

 growing season so that the water level is a few inches below 

 the surface of the soil is,however, of greater importance than 

 the power to flood it at will. 



The culture of cranberries is carried on under two meth- 

 ods, viz., on improved wild marshes and on artificially 

 planted ones. 



269. Improving: wild marshes. This consists chiefly in 

 clearing the ground that already produces wild cranberries, 

 of trees, logs, bushes and other rubbish, in draining it more 

 or less thoroughly, and in providing certain facilities for 

 controlling the water. The draining should be performed 

 gradually. It is cranberry culture in its simplest form*, 

 and the improvements are carried to a greater or less ex- 

 tent according as the work proves profitable. The fruit 

 produced on wild marshes is rarely uniform as to size or 

 keeping quality, and hence is not usually as valuable as 

 that produced on the better planted marshes. 



2^0. Selecting g:round for the cranberry. Grounds suit- 

 able to cranberry culture are generally subject to frost, and 

 hence should be selected with especial reference to cold-air 

 drainage. 



Only alluvial or mucky soils that are free from clay or 

 loam are adapted to the cranberry. An equal mixture of 



