126 CBANBERRIES. * 



"well authenticated) may yet demonstrate the feasibility of produc- 

 ing new and improved varieties. Our object is to awaken the 

 attention of growers to this subject ; and, if they have any waste 

 bogs, swamps, or sand beaches, possibly they may find it so much 

 for their interest to improve some of them, by transplanting the 

 vine, sowing its seed or scattering cuttings in drills or broadcast 

 over the surface, as to be themselves instrumental in discovering 

 and producing new varieties, and originating some new method of 

 cultivating the fruit. At all events, we earnestly commend these 

 su'ggestions to the agriculturists of this and other countries, not 

 without the hope of attaining beneficial practical results. In this 

 way the great object of all art and science is gradually accom- 

 plished. The practical observer collects facts from which the man 

 of science, by logical processes, deduces theories to benefit man- 

 kind. 



As to cranberry culture, -what mostly is needed in growing the 

 vine is moisture. Manure is useless — loam and soil are superfluous 

 — sterile beach sand is better than either. We mean beach sand 

 (sterile for all other purposes) is better adapted to the growing of 

 cranberries than either loam, soil or manure. Fine gravel, if sand 

 be not procurable, will subserve a good purpose. Hence, residents 

 on the margin of the sea, if they have plenty of beach land, can 

 profitable turn their attention to the cultivation of the cranberry. 

 Flowing is almost indispensable in winter or spring. Salt scattered 

 over the land, or salt water submerging the land, improves the 

 berry — rendering it hardier, firmer, and more capable of distant 

 transportation. What it most needs is contiguity to water and air, 

 and next to these proximity to the seashore. This appears the 

 more probable from an analysis made by Prof. Horsford, and con- 

 tained in Mr. Flint's Report of 1853. Indeed, without any 

 analysis, facts already known would justify our proposition. At 

 Ipswich, one cultivator grows the fairest fruit where the vine is 

 planted in white beach sand, without any mixture of soil or manure. 

 And the freer the land is of rushes and grasses, the better the 

 cranberry vine and fruit flourish. 



The time for cranberry culture may be said to be spring and fall ; 

 though, with great care and pains, the vine may be set in August 

 safely, all things else being suitable. If you make cranberry beds 



