574 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ally stirred during summer witli a hand-harrow, the plants will 

 thrive the more rapidly. They should be set closely, as they will 

 the sooner cover the ground to the exclusion of weeds, from which, 

 if kept free for two or three years, they will thenceforth need but 

 little if any attention. In soil thus prepared, I have transplanted 

 the la«t of May, and have picked fine clusters of berries the ensu- 

 ing fall. In two or three years a fair crop may be expected, and 

 thenceforth, so far as my experience goes, will be annually realized. 

 To insure large crops, the soil, during summer, should be kept 

 well saturated with water, and if flowed in the spring all the 

 better. This I accomplish, as far as possible, by a proper 

 adjustment of my drains, opening and closing them according 

 to the variations of the weather, from wet to dry. As to trans- 

 planting, there is no diflQculty whatever. If an equal number of 

 cabbage and of cranberry plants be set, more failures would be 

 found among the former than among the latter. A cranberry 

 plant a yard long, set in a mellow peat soil, in a wet season, will 

 take root at every point of full contact with the soil. To give 

 you a practical illustration of what old Steuben can do in the 

 line of raising cranberries, without any of the advantages of sea- 

 shore sand, which some think indispensable to their growth, a 

 specimen will accompany this communication. By comparing 

 them with those on sale in your city, you may be able, to some 

 extent, to judge whether they possess any merits that would 

 entitle them to that distinction." 



It was generally conceded that finer specimens of this choice 

 fruit had never been seen. 



Mr. Robinson said — It is a pity that we cannot convince all the 

 owners of such swamps as Mr. Hill describes that they can grow 

 just as good berries as these. There are many such places within 

 a few miles of this city that are now pests to the owners, that 

 would be profitable ever after, if once set in cranberry vines. 



Mr. Pardee — The cranberry has been very much improved — as 

 much so as any other fruit. I don't know of any fruit that offers 

 greater inducements to experiment with than the cranberry, in 

 seedlings, since it has already shown such good results. If cran- 

 berry seed, or in fact any other hard seed, is difiicult to vegetate, 

 it may be scalded with boiling water. 



