494 THE FIG. 



culinary uses, is well known, and in portions of the country where it 

 does not naturally grow, or is not abundantly produced, it is quite worth 

 while to attempt its culture. Although, naturally, it grows mostly in 

 mossy wet land, yet it may be easily cultivated in beds of peat soil, 

 made in any rather moist situation ; and if a third of old thoroughly 

 decayed manure is added to the peat, the berries will be much larger 

 and of more agreeable flavor than the wild ones. A square of the size 

 of twenty feet, planted in this way, will yield three or four bushels an- 

 nually quite sufficient for a family. The plants are easily procured, 

 and are generally taken up like squares of sod or turf, and planted two 

 or three feet apart, when they quickly cover the whole beds. 



In some parts of New England, low and coarse meadows, of no value, 

 have been drained and turned to very profitable account by planting 

 them with this fruit. In New Jersey, on Long Island, and elsewhere, 

 large tracts of light sandy soils have been planted to Cranberries, and 

 grown with profit and success. The Cranberry grows freely in light 

 soils, but it is necessary to cover the surface, after ploughing, a depth 

 of several inches, with clean sand. The average product is from eighty 

 to one hundred bushels of cranberries, and the care they require after 

 the land is once prepared and planted is scarcely any at all, except in 

 gathering. Some of the farms in Massachusetts yield large crops, 

 partly from natural growth, and partly from cultivated plantations. 

 The Cranberry grows wild in the greatest abundance on the sandy low 

 necks near Barnstable, and an annual Cranberry festival is made of the 

 gathering of the fruit, which is done by the mass of the population, who 

 turn out on the day appointed by the authorities, and make a general 

 gathering with their cranberry rakes, a certain portion of the crop be- 

 longing, and being delivered, to the town. 



A laborer will gather about thirty bushels of the fruit in a day with 

 a cranberry rake. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE FIG. 



Ficus Canca, L. Arb. Brit. Urticace, of botanists ; Figuier, of the French ; 

 Fdgenbaum, German ; Fico. Italian ; Higuera, Spanish. 



THIS celebrated fruit-tree, whose history is as ancient as that of the 

 world, belongs properly to a warm climate, though it may be raised in 

 the open air in the Middle States, with proper care. 



In its native countries, Asia and Africa, near the sea coast it forms a 

 low tree, twenty feet in height, with spreading branches, and large, 

 deeply lobed, rough leaves. It is completely naturalized in the south 

 of Europe, where its cultivation is one of the most important occupa- 

 tions of the fruit-grower. 



The fruit of the Fig-tree is remarkable for making its appearance, 

 growing, and ripening, without being preceded by any apparent blossom. 

 The latter, however, is concealed in the interior of a fleshy receptacle 



