LETTERS FROM PRACTICAL GROWERS. 107 



market value of about one thousand dollars per acre. 

 Some have sold for that price, and repaid the purchaser 

 in three years. A few extra meadows have sold for fifteen 

 hundred dollars per acre. 



If properly prepared, the expense of keeping a cran- 

 berry meadow free from foreign growth is very small 

 averaging, probably, from three to ten dollars per acre, 

 per annum. 



Picking is done by hand, and costs fifty cents per 

 bushel. Bushel boxes, thoroughly ventilated, and cleated 

 at the ends, so that they cannot lie close together, are 

 best for preserving fruit that is stored. These boxes cost 

 from sixteen to twenty cents each. The fruit, if well 

 colored, should be placed in them in the meadow, to avoid 

 unnecessary handling ; then carried in a spring wagon, 

 and stored in a cool cellar. 



Fruit should be well colored before storing. If not so 

 when picked, it should be spread thinly on floors, exposed 

 to the light, but not to the sun. 



The market value of cranberries, during the winter just 

 past, has ranged from three to seven dollars per bushel. 



Juliustown, N. J., 3mo., 4, 1870. 



BARCLAY WHITE. 



The following is the experience of Samuel H. Shreve, 

 of New Jersey. 



February, 1867. 



In selecting a site for a cranberry bog, it is first neces- 

 sary to ascertain if there be a peat or muck bottom, as, 

 without this, our labor will be wasted. The peat should 

 be without any mixture of loam or mud, and when taken 

 out of the swamp, and dried, should be light and flaky. 

 Its depth is not of consequence. In our swamps, it is 

 found varying in depth from six inches to fifteen feet, and 

 even of greater depths. It rests, generally, upon a coarse 



