44 CRANBERRY CULTURE. 



and then turfed. For cutting the turf in strips to prepare 

 it for the hoe, an ordinary cleaver may be used ; or, to ac- 

 complish the work more expeditiously, use a tool (fig. 15) 

 made in the following manner ; viz : fix a stout, sharp 

 coulter in a beam, with handles and clevis attached ; and 

 let it be drawn through the turf by a horse, the length of 

 the blade being properly adjusted to cut to the required 

 depth. 



Some prefer the coulter to incline backward, that it may 

 slide over large roots, but when in that position, the ten- 

 dency is to raise out, and it requires considerable pressure 

 to keep it to its work. 



In order to dispose of the turf after being separated 

 from the soil, we have sometimes heaped up and burned 



Fig. 15. TURF CUTTER. 



that grown on the lower portions of the meadow ; on the 

 higher parts, the turf generally contains too much sanrl 

 to burn freely. The ground may be cleared more cheaply 

 in this way, but the effect of ashes upon the soil is to pro- 

 duce a growth of Tree-moss (Potytrichum commune), 

 which, when abundant, is a serious injury to the vines, in 

 that it keeps the runners lifted above the ground, and 

 prevents them from rooting. Upon spots where heaps of 

 turf have been burned, moss frequently comes in, even 

 after plowing ; but if the ashes are spread on the surface, 

 and plowed under, no injury will result from them. 



Ashes have also a fertilizing effect upon the cranberry 

 vines ; this fact induced us to spread them, several years 

 ago, upon the surface of a sandy knoll, where the vines 



