62 BLOSSOMING TIME PRECAUTIONS. 



and it is rarely or ever found on the runners, but in 

 variably on the spears or stems which are thrown up 

 from the creepers. 



There are about this time some precautions required ; 

 but they are more needed in some parts of the country 

 than in others. 



Districts in which there are cranberry yards, which 

 are liable to be visited by frost late in the spring, call 

 for especial .care from the cultivator. If his vines 

 blossom too soon, they will most probably be killed 

 by the frost, or at most he will have but a scanty crop. 

 The vines may, in the blossoming season, present an 

 abundance of flowers, and a night of frost cut them 

 off. In other regions where they are not so likely to 

 suffer from this cause, the same precautions are not 

 demanded. 



Here, and in cases of the kind just named, the ad- 

 vantage of flooding is apparent. Those who can flood 

 their vines, can retard the blossom, or keep it back 

 until they think their vines are not likely to suffer by 

 frost. The practice generally followed is, to keep the 

 water over the vines till the last of May or middle of 

 June, and then draw it off. The sooner the water is 

 drained from the yard, the vines will blossom all the 

 earlier for it; but that would be no advantage when 

 frost has not entirely disappeared from that locality 



