60 CRANBERRY CULTURE, 



as well as above. It makes its appearance on savannas 

 and heath ponds directly after the ground is broken, al- 

 though, perhaps, not a specimen was visible before. Dur- 

 ing the first year its growth is vigorous, and somewhat 

 alarming ; the next, it comes up from the seeds again, but 

 does not grow so luxuriantly ; and the third season, al- 

 though the seeds germinate, the plants have a sickly, yel- 

 low appearance, and most of them fail to perfect their 

 fruit ; after this they almost entirely disappear. 



In alluding to cranberry meadows, Dr. J. Gibbons Hunt, 

 a well-known naturalist of Philadelphia, says : " A very 

 curious grass comes up in these bogs after the turf has 

 been removed. It has tufted, flat, lanceolate leaves, cloth- 

 ed with bristly hairs. It flowers both above and under the 

 ground. Botanists call it Millet-grass, or Amphicarpiim 

 Purshii. The aerial flower is borne on a loose branching 

 panicle, with fruit rarely ripening. Below the soil subterra- 

 nean peduncles branch off from the roots, bearing on their 

 ends perfect, solitary flowers, which are followed by ma- 

 ture fruit. Thus a double life seems to be given to this 

 humble grass, and, for a weary time, like Patience herself, 

 it has been waiting and flowering beneath the turf, plant- 

 ing its unseen and unsunned seeds, until man should come 

 and bid it cover the sod to feed his flocks. How wonder- 

 fully are the bogs of this life, too, prepared for a higher 

 culture by the little seeds of truth and love which have 

 lain subterranean for so long a time, until turfed and 

 drained by the Divine husbandman." 



The millet does but little injury to the vines, as it gradu- 

 ally decreases as they increase and have need for the 

 ground. Large sums of money, perhaps thousands of dol- 

 lars, have been unnecessarily expended in removing this 

 grass from cranberry meadows. 



Mill-pond bottoms sometimes become very grassy after 

 the cranberry vines are planted, yielding, occasionally, a 

 ton of hay per acre, and presenting an appearance rather 



