SMALL FRUITS. 



Cranberry Cultmre. — The constantly increasing price of the cranberry, 

 and the great nunibei'S of marshes with alluvium soU free from clay or loam 

 that one meets almost everywhere, prompts the question why cranberries 

 are not more generally cultivated. Of all the self-supporting crops, none 

 needs less care than the cranberry, if the conditions that govern its culture 

 are first comphed with, and none certainly shows greater financial results. 

 The first essential is the marsh and its soil, with reference also to the ability 

 to control the water supijly. A soil having any proportion of clay should be 

 avoided, and selection made of a combined decaying vegetable mass, with 

 natural sand, and the less loam there is in this the better. Eastern growers 

 cover their marshes with sand, but in the West, if the swamp, upon exami- 

 nation, seems to have a fair amount of sand or silex, it is quite probable that 

 success may be attained in putting out the plants without this sand mulch. 

 As a rule, it is a greater guarantee of success to have a stream of water 

 crossing the marsh, for then in dry weather the gates can be closed and the 

 marsh saturated, and if insect pests make their appearance the vines can be 

 submerged for a day, which mil make the worms loosen their hold, but the 

 chances may be taken on a common " dry " patch of swamp. It is supposed 

 that any one who attempts the culture of cranbemes will make the dams 

 and smbaukments of the most solid and substantial character, with gates 

 that will not only work, but be water-tight, else failure will come with the 

 first freshet. Ditching should next be seen to, and rapid drainage secured. 

 This is done by a broad central channel and lateral ditches, which should 

 mot be at right angles to it, but approaching it in diagonal lines. The 

 amount of water will have to be taken into consideration — the more water, 

 the more ditches — a fact that will determine also the width of the main out- 

 let. If the swamp is of some extent, it is to be presumed that a ditch at 

 least six or eight feet in width will be needed. These ditches should not bo 

 over two feet in depth, and iinless there are very heavy discharges of water 

 from the uplands, or natural water coiirses, the side ditches need not be 

 nearer than one hundred feet from each other. One ditch should always 

 run parallel with and about six feet, or even more, from the dam; the soil 

 thrown out can bo utilized in building the dam. The planting requires some 

 discernment. If the muck is covered with alders, reeds, and the like, a 

 great amount of labor will have to be performed in advance, but the experi- 

 ence of a great many has been, where tlie muck was only covered with a 

 growth of wild grass, that the ditching and consequent dry soil will so hinder 

 its growth that the berry vines will thrive and soon force it into subjection, 

 and, upon the whole, it will, in the first year of the growth of the cranberry, 

 prove a source of profit in tlie way of protection from exposure and the like. 

 By this method tlie labor of setting the vines will only be one of thrusting a 

 narrow spade into the soil, pushing the handle over to one side, insert the 

 plants, three or four in number, and i)res8 the soil fiiouly about the plants 

 ■with the foot. Where weeds and wild sago have a strong hold upon th(j 



