LETTERS FROM PRACTICAL GROWERS. 103 



loam from both patches, and put on three or four inches 

 of sand and gravel that was entirely free from loam or 

 clay; drained so that the water in the ditches was from 

 twelve to eighteen inches below the surface, and then set 

 the vines, as we usually do, in small hills, of six or eight 

 shoots, or pieces, eighteen inches apart each way. The 

 vines grew well, and with very little trouble from grass 

 or weeds; have had, generally, fair crops, which con- 

 vinced me that the failure in my first attempt was not on 

 account of soil or location, but wholly owing to the wrong 

 material used in covering the muck, or mud, and keeping 

 the ground too. wet. 



My next operation in the way of cranberry culture, and 

 the one that has, I think, been the most profitable, or 

 paid the best percentage on the original cost of any patch 

 in this region, was on a peat swamp of about two acres ; 

 the growth upon it was huckleberry bushes, small ma- 

 ples, and a kind of low bushes, with us called laurel 

 bushes. The soil was from one to three feet of turf and 

 peat, underlaid with a thin stratum of white sand, then a 

 hard pan. The swamp could be drained and flooded 

 almost any time from a pond near by. This patch I pre- 

 pared as the others before named, putting on the white 

 sand taken from the edge of the swamp and upland. Set 

 the vines, which, by way of accident, proved to be about 

 the best vines yet found in this part of the country. They 

 grew well, and put out for a fine crop on the third year, 

 but, while in full bloom, the vine worm made its appear- 

 ance. After four or five days, not only the blossoms were 

 destroyed, but there was scarcely a green leaf to be seen. 

 I had flooded it every winter and spring to about the first 

 of April, when I let the water off. That was the usual 

 time for letting off by the cranberry growers in this vi- 

 cinity. So, that year, this patch, as far as crop was con- 

 cerned, was an entire failure. About this time, which 

 was about 1854-5, the vine, or fire worm, had taken 



