22 CRANBERRY CULTURE. 



had heard something of the success of their New 

 England brethren, they knew little or nothing of their 

 mode of cultivation, and, until towards the year 1860, 

 about nine-tenths of the attempts at cultivation were un- 

 profitable. 



John Webb, of Ocean County, was perhaps one of the 

 earliest successful experimenters in this State. He com- 

 menced by removing some sods of vines from a neighbor- 

 ing swamp, and placing them in a damp spot, that proved 

 to be adapted to their growth; in this they flourished, 

 and, in course of time, the ground was covered with 

 vines yielding paying crops. 



Encouraged by the success of his first efforts, he added 

 to his number of acres, and his wealth has corresponding- 

 ly increased. 



Barclay White, one of the first cultivators in Burling- 

 ton County, writing, in 1855, to the Secretary of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Board of Agriculture, said : " In the spring of 

 1851, I commenced operations by plowing up (the turf 

 was turned under), and planting about three-fourths of 

 an acre on a black, peaty soil, of twelve or fifteen inches 

 in depth, with a white sand and gravel subsoil. On either 

 side, a few hundred yards distant, on ground in which a 

 horse would mire, the wild vines were growing luxuri- 

 antly. I struck out the rows four feet apart each way, 

 and planted a sod of vines, some four inches square, at 

 each intersection. They were cultivated some that season. 

 That fall we picked three pecks of fruit, large and fine ; 

 about an equal quantity had been destroyed by a worm, 

 similar in appearance to the apple- worm. In 1852, I 

 planted about one and a quarter acres in a similar manner, 

 excepting that the hills were placed four feet by two feet 

 apart. The product that fall was about six bushels of 

 large fruit, picked about the last of August, but they did 

 not keep well. The vines had become so matted as to ad- 



