260 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



being surrounded by high uplands and woods, for a bog in an 

 open location is less liable, other things being equal, to injury 

 from frost, and its berries are more likely to set heavily, ripen 

 early, and keep well when exposed to the maximum amount of 

 sunshine. 



Sa7id. 



Clean sand, preferably coarse, or gravel should be readily 

 obtainable from banks surrounding the bog location. Fine 

 sand is often used for covering the bog with a mulch before the 

 vines are set as well as for resanding them in subsequent years, 

 but such sand appears always to promote the growth of moss 

 and does not seem to be so effective in helping to keep down 

 weeds as does coarse sand. Fine gravel is thought by many to 

 be superior to sand. 



Drainage. 



A bog should be capable of good drainage. Poor drainage 

 always promotes weed growth, and it usually affects the keep- 

 ing quality of the berries by inducing increased activity on the 

 part of fungous diseases which cause berries to rot both on the 

 bog and in the storehouse. In order to have sufficient drainage, 

 it is necessary that the land on the lower side of the bog should 

 grade down rapidly, so that the water at any time may be 

 drawn out of the bog quickly. A ditch should be cut entirely 

 around the bog, and other ditches are usually dug across it, 

 dividing it into sections. If the drainage away from the bog is 

 first class, these cross ditches are not of extreme importance 

 unless the bottom is springy. In a naturally dry and well- 

 drained piece of bog it is desirable that the cross ditches, if 

 present at all, should be few and widely separated. If, how- 

 ever, the bog is naturally wet and difficult to drain, the cross 

 ditches should be much closer placed. In many well-drained 

 bogs the cross ditches are probably placed much closer together 

 than is necessary, for the reason that water is found to travel 

 easily and quickly through ordinary peat. Its passage through 

 peat is far more rapid than through clay soils. On naturally 

 well-drained bogs, therefore, the chief function of the cross 

 ditches is to provide for the rapid distribution of water over 

 the entire bog surface, especially in the beginning of flooding. 

 Without cross ditches to distribute the water, the flowage 



