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years, amply repay the expense. In setting vines upon land 

 unfit to be plowed, which produces grass naturally, I would 

 spread upon the surface, in August, from one to two tons of 

 cheap hay per acre, covering the same with two or three inches 

 of sand for the good of the cranberry and to keep the hay in 

 place. In the month of May following would set the vines as 

 thickly as could be afforded, striking the hoe through sand and 

 hay into the soil. The hay acts as a fertilizer to the vine and 

 very effectually prevents the growth of grass. 



It is evident, I think, that more cranberries are destroyed by 

 the frosts of June and September than all other causes com- 

 bined, in this locality, hence the importance of a flood gate to 

 protect the vines and cranberries by water, where it is possible 

 to be done. From my own experience and observation, I have 

 yet to be fully convinced that continuous flowing in the freezing 

 months is necessary to insure a crop of cranberries. This may 

 seem to be an extraordinary statement, but my reasons are 

 these : 1st. It is unnatural to the vine, and when covered with 

 water early in Autumn it becomes very tender (not hardy) by 

 spring. I have known a crop of cranberries, or the buds of 

 the same, under a mill-pond to be spoiled by the scorching rays 

 of the sun when the water was let off rather suddenly. I think 

 the bud is oftener injured by frosts after the water is drawn 

 away. If it escapes the heat and cold of April and May, it is 

 more likely to be injured by the frosts of June than those vines 

 that withstood the frosts of Autumn and Winter without much 

 water. 



In response to a request for him to make a statement, at 

 length, in regard to cranberry culture, if he so desired, the 

 Chairman of the Committee received the following : 



The cultivation of the cranberry probably commenced in the 

 earlier part of the present century, and conducted on a limited 

 scale until within thirty-five or forty years, when it received 

 considerable attention in the vicinity of Cape Cod in this state, 

 and the consequences have been increased productiveness and 

 improvement of the plant. In most of the New England 



