92 CORRESPONDENCE. 



cranberry vines, on a piece of swamp land, bordering 

 on the meadow. It was covered with brakes, bayberry 

 and whortleberry bushes. I took off the brush and top 

 sod, removing all the roots, and with them built a 

 dyke around the piece to keep off the tide water. 

 Part of this swamp was a soft quagmire, the other a 

 knoll about three feet high. This knoll I levelled off 

 by wheeling the soil into the bottom. The soil was a 

 hard black sand. I then set out the vines in the sods 

 that I found growing along by the edge of this meadow, 

 about eighteen inches apart. The bottom, where I 

 filled in sand, grew up to rushes, so as to obstruct the 

 spreading of the vines. On the upper part the soil 

 being hard and surrounded by cold spring water, I 

 think will not prove a favorable location for the 

 growth of cranberries. 



Kespectfully yours, 

 December lOih, 1855. HOWES CHAPMAN. 



LETTER IX. 



DEAR SIR : In the year 1813, by my father's re- 

 quest, I planted some two rods of cranberry vines by 

 the side of Scargo Lake, or pond, which I took from 

 a swamp where they grow in a natural state. They 



