150 



And what has been clone on the cape can be done in Es- 

 sex county. We have a large extent of meadow land 

 that is nearly worthless now, that might be put under 

 cultivation for the cranberry crop, and many of our old 

 meadows give unmistakable evidence of their adaptation 

 naturally for this crop, by constantly sending forth fine 

 specimens of the natural vine and berry without the aid 

 of cultivation. 



But our farmers will ask, what kind of land is best 

 adapted to the cultivation of the cranberry ? We should 

 answer by saying not the sandy shores of bays and gulfs 

 or seas. Very many persons have supposed that the rea- 

 son why the cape cranberries were so beautiful in form 

 and color was because they were grown on the seashore 

 among the salt sea sand. This theory is entirely errone- 

 ous. The experiment has often been tried to grow the 

 cranberry among the sands of the seashore, not only on 

 Cape Cod but in our own county, on the sandy beaches 

 of Plum Island, but without success. Dr. Mumford, who 

 tried the experiment on Plum Island, succeeded, after 

 several years of careful study and labor and quite an ex- 

 pense, in raising six or seven perfect cranberries, and then 

 abandoned the business altogether. 



Others have supposed that the cranberry could be cul- 

 tivated successfully upon high lands especially if these 

 lands had moist, springy surfaces, but we do not know of 

 a successful experiment on these lands. The nearest 

 approximation to success that has come under my own 

 observation is that of the late Gorham Brackett, of Ips- 

 wich, Mass. 



The best lands adapted to the cultivation of the cran- 

 berry are the low swamp lands that abound not only on 

 the cape but here in Essex county. Most of the cran- 

 berry bogs of the cape are made on the bottoms of the old 

 cedar swamps where they can be easily flowed with water 

 at all seasons of the year. We have seen several very 

 fine cranberry bogs on lands that could not be flowed 



