104 



for the benefit of the plants. The cranberry is a dear lover of 

 water, and wants nothing stronger, and, in this particular, is well 

 entitled to our confidence."* 



C. L. Flint, Esq., the Secretary of the Mass. Board of Agricul- 

 ture, says, in his admirable Report for 1853 : " The experiments 

 which have already been made clearly show the practicability of 

 raising cranberries on upland. I have seen flourishing plantations 

 of them on all varieties of soils, from a high and light gravelly loam 

 to a very deep, rich, garden soil. Indeed, the universal opinion 

 seems to be that such cranberries are better than those growing 

 naturally in wet meadows. In the instances which I have myself 

 seen, the land had been carefully ploughed and prepared, as it 

 usually is for strawberries, or plants of that description. The 

 plants were taken from their original situation in the manner 

 described, in the sod, and freed from grasses and roots ; they 

 were then put into shallow trenches or drills, dug for the purpose, 

 about two and a half or three feet apart. In consequence of the 

 large space left between the drills, constant and careful attention 

 was necessary for two or three years, so that far more labor was 

 spent on them than the same area of strawberries would have 

 required." 



The chief obstacles to the upland culture of the cranberry ap- 

 pear to be the difficulty of preventing the growth of grass and 

 weeds, and the necessity of preserving moisture in the soil. 

 These are, neither of them, it is proved, insuperable ; and we ap- 

 prehend that, on soils similar to that alluded to in both the fore- 

 going extracts, some other substance than meadow mud might be 

 used with advantage for both purposes. Perhaps spent tan, pure 

 beach sand, or where these cannot be had, any fine sand, put 

 between the vines, would retard the growth of grass and weeds. 



* We coppy the following from a late issue of the Salem Register. 



" Cranberries. — Elias Needham, Esq., of West Danvers, has a lot of up- 

 land, bordering upon the Danvers Railroad, containing five-eighths of an ace. 

 Upon this, some five or six years since, he set out cranberry plants, and has 

 cultivated them with great care. This year he picked ninety-seven bushels 

 of excellent cranberries, which he sold for four dollars per bushel ; and be" 

 sides these there were some ten bushels of damaged berries. From trees 

 ^on the same land he picked fourteen barrels of apples, which he sold for 

 four dollars per barrel, — making the gross income from five-eighths of an 

 acre, /oi«r hundred and forty-four dollars !" 



