PREPARING SOILS. 87 



not do much, but now it is one of the handsomest 

 yards in the county. Everything seems to be favor- 

 able — ^soil, situation, and water — and the result is, heavy 

 yields of the berry. In this, as many as three bushels 

 have been picked off a square rod. And so well is it 

 now known that situations where beach sand abounds 

 are the best, that the most practical men are buying up 

 such locations with the view of converting them into 

 cranberry yards. 



We are acquainted with one cultivator, w^hose yards 

 produce from two to three hundred bushels of cran- 

 berries annually, who has the greatest proportion of 

 his vines planted in the beach sand, and some few in 

 loam. The difference between the two is marked. Those 

 in sand are fruitful, those in loam are but small pro- 

 ducers. He therefore carts off the loam, or carts upon 

 it heach sand. 



"We could produce a vast body of evidence to demon- 

 strate that beach sand is better adapted to develop the 

 cranberry than any other soil ; but the cases adduced 

 are suf6.cient. 



There is another reason, though, which should not 

 be lost sight of, why this sand is so much better than 

 any other soil. It is light, porous, and is almost inca- 

 pable of supporting weeds. It admits the atmosphere 

 freely to the roots of the vine, and is found to be the 

 only soil in which the rank weeds can be effectually 



