176 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



come an object of cultivation. Experience has probably not 

 yet fully developed the most certain means of attaining the 

 greatest success, but enough is already known, to assume 

 that they are a profitable object of attention to the farmer. 



SOIL AND CULTIVATION. They are generally planted on 

 low, moist meadows which are prepared by thorough plow- 

 ing and harrowing. They are then set in drills by slips and 

 roots, usually in the spring, but sometimes in autumn, about 

 20 inches apart and at distances of about 3 inches. They 

 require to have the weeds kept out and the ground stirred 

 with a light cultivator or hoe, and they will soon overrun and 

 occupy the whole ground. An occasional top dressing of 

 swamp muck is beneficial. Mr. Bates of Massachusetts has 

 in this way, produced at the rate of 300 bushels per acre, 

 which were worth in the market from one to two dollars per 

 bushel. Capt Hall of the same state, raises them in a swamp, 

 first giving it a top dressing of sand 01 gravel to kill the grass, 

 when he digs holes 4 feet apart, and inserts in each a sod of 

 cranberry plants about one foot square. From these sods 

 they gradually spread till the whole surface is occupied. 



The cranberry is sometimes killed by late or early frosts, 

 and it has been suggested, that these might be avoided by 

 having the fields so arranged when they may be expected as 

 to be slightly covered with water. The cranberry is gather- 

 ed when sufficiently ripe, by raking them from the bushes. 

 They are cleaned from the stems, leaves and imperfect ber- 

 ries, by washing and rolling them over smooth boards set on 

 an inclined plane, in the same manner as imperfect shot are 

 assorted. After this they are put into tight casks and filled 

 with water. If stored in a cool place, the water changed at 

 proper intervals, and the imperfect berries occasionally thrown 

 out, they will keep till the following summer. They will fre- 

 quently bring $20 per barrel in European markets. The 

 raking is beneficial rather than otherwise to the plants, for 

 though some of the plants are pulled out and others broken, 

 their places are more than supplied by the subsequent growth. 



