144 THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



In such locations the water protects the vines in the winter, and where 

 it does not leave the vines until the last of May or the first of June, it 

 protects the blossom buds against the spring frosts, checks the growth of 

 grass, and at the same time gives to the vines just the fertilizing material 

 they require. 



He who desires to enter largely into the cultivation of cranberries 

 should not be satisfied with the borders of a pond, but should look around 

 until he finds a piece of land naturally fitted for the cranberry, and thus 

 avoid heavy and constant expenses. When such location is found it will 

 be a meadow with a peat bottom or never-failing stream of water fiowing 

 through it ; the land so situated that it can be covered with water in a few 

 hours at any season of the • year, and kept covered at least two feet deep 

 from December to May ; also within a short distance of a sand hill. 



When a piece of land of this description can be found it is cheap at any 

 price under five hundred dollars per acre, and even at five hundred dollars 

 per acre it will pay a very large profit if set with cranbeiTies. In preparing 

 the land it is best to remove the sod down to the peat, which in most 

 locations will be worth more for manure than the cost of removal. The 

 land should then be covered with at least four inches of sand ; this can be 

 done best and cheapest in the winter when the ground is frozen and the 

 work of the men and teams is not so pressing. The vines should be set in 

 May, as soon as the weather begins to be warm. If the water can be 

 brought to within an inch of the top of the sand the vines can be set with 

 greater ease and will be much more likely to live. Whatever may be said 

 to the contrary, we believe it is always best to set vines that have roots. 

 We have seen plantations set with vines that had been run through a hay 

 cutter, under the direction of one who believed the tops were as good as the 

 roots, but the result was a complete failure. The vines do best to set them 

 in single roots, being first entirely freed from grass. The distance apart 

 should not be over six inches each way. If the water is just the right 

 height, the vines can be scattered over the sand and the roots pressed in 

 with the fingers. Never set in rows two or three feet apart, for by so 

 doing the vines will always be uneven, because by the time the ground is 

 covered between the rows, the vines in the rows become old, with many 

 dead vines ; but if the vines are set all over the ground, by the second or 

 third year the ground will be well and evenly covered with young vigorous 

 vines. 



There is a worm similar to the plum curculio which sometimes attacks 

 the young fruit that grows upon land that cannot be kept covered with 

 water during the winter. As the pei'fect insect winters near the surface 

 of the ground the water probably destroys it. 



It is very important to keep the weeds and grass out the first two or 

 three years ; after that if the land is well adapted to the fruit but little 

 attention will be required, except to keep the land flowed at the proper 

 time. As the weeds and grass must all be picked out by hand ; the first 

 year requires considerable time, and the second year will require more 

 time than the crop will be worth, but it pays in the' end to keep the vines 

 entirely free fi-om both weeds and grass. 



