116 APPENDIX. 



give my experience in the cultivation of the cranberry ; 

 I would do it with the hope that by my efforts and 

 experience, whether successful or otherwise, the culti- 

 vators of this fruit may be encouraged and emboldened 

 to persevere in the cultivation of this delicious fruit, 

 which promises the cultivator so great a reward. 



It is more than twenty years since I entered upon 

 the cultivation of the vine with high hopes, believing 

 that the cranberry Avas a hard thing to exterminate, 

 that it would destroy grass in all situations and in all 

 soils, and cause even hassocks to disappear. But after 

 a trial and many years of observation, I find the cran- 

 berry a hard plant to destroy, except with the piough, 

 and that it will not root out and destroy all grasses in 

 all situations and soils. I find that in some soils the 

 vine will not drive out certain kinds of grasses, when 

 in other soils it may succeed. Take for instance that 

 kind of sedge-grass which we call hassock-grass, this 

 upon banks of streams, and in our swails where it is 

 more or less irrigated, roots with such strong hold and 

 throws up the blades of grass so thickly that there is 

 no room for the vine in a soil less rich, and the vine 

 will in all probability succeed. 



Take, for instance, the osmunda spectcibiUs^ called in 

 this vicinity buckthorn, and is known to botanists by 

 the name of flowering fern. This grows in the form 

 of a tree, its slender stem supporting a large top with 



