Down among the jerseys. 6y 



they swarm out at the door to gaze at the passers with as much eagerness 

 as city children would look at the cavalcade of a menagerie or a military 

 parade. 



Near by is the charcoal-pit ; and, whenever its contents are ready, the 

 wagons are filled, and a journey of twenty miles or less will bring the 

 owner to some town or city, where he can peddle it out at forty or fifty cents 

 the barrel. Just beside the door is the rude enclosure for the pigs ; and as 

 the animals usually run at large in the woods, and find their own living 

 upon the acorns and weeds, they are little expense to their possessors. If 

 their flesh is not as fine in quality as if fattened wiih corn, it will at least 

 be a satisfying dainty to these savages, who know little of the tastes and 

 fancies of educated palates. 



These people also increase their revenue by stealing from the neighboi:- 

 ing cranberry-swamps ; for this is the region for native cranberries. The 

 swamps, for generations back, have been considered the right and property 

 of this predatory race ; and, when purchasers first began to claim control 

 over their own plantations, they were looked upon as common enemies, 

 whose titles were of no importance in comparison with theirs. With them, 

 possession was more than nine points of the law of property ; and not until 

 after years of expensive vigilance did the proprietors obtain final control 

 of their crops. The thieves preferred to gather the berries before they had 

 turned at all, rather than risk a total loss by waiting longer : so, while the 

 owners, who generally lived at a distance of several miles, and came occa- 

 sionally to look after them, rested in quiet anticipation of a full crop in due 

 season, these watchful thieves, the " pine-rats," came beforehand, and gath- 

 ered the lion's share. To reason or expostulate was vain ; for they own 

 no law, and are as perfectly heathen as if they lived in Africa instead of 

 Jerse}'. An imaginary evil being, known as " Leeds's Devil," is said to be 

 the deity whose influence they dread more than even the law of the land. 



But the pioneer cranberry-farmers were not discouraged by these unto- 

 ward surroundings ; and ten years of perseverance and compromise with 

 these people have brought matters into quite a different shape. Many cran- 

 berr)--bogs, which in their native state were only half-productive, have been 

 replanted, and supplied with the means of irrigation. One of these men, 

 whose bog of nearly a hundred acres produced him last year the gross 



