166 FRUIT GARDEN. 
The main reason why upland cultivation is so much 
more expensive than low lands, is its tendency to grass 
and weed, and the great expense of labor, &c., in weeding 
and keeping clean. Muck swamps are of not much value 
for other purposes, but for the Cranberry they are well 
adapted, 
Good plants can be had of nurserymen for 50 cents per 
hundred, and even for 25 to 30 cents where several thou- 
sands are wanted. The States of Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut are paying particular attention to the Cranberry 
at the present time, where it proves to be one of the most 
profitable crops. 
If the plants are 18 inches apart, 19,000 plants will 
cover an acre; if two feet 10,000, and if two and a half 
feet, 7,000. 
But where there is a pond, it may be cultivated with 
the greater success. On the margin of the pond stakes 
are driven in a short way within the water line; boards 
are so placed against these as to prevent the soil of the 
Cranberry bed from falling into the water. A layer of 
small stones is deposited in the bottom, and over these peat 
or bog earth, mixed with sand, to the extent of about three 
or four inches above, and half a foot below the usual sur- 
face of the water. Plants of the American Cranberry 
placed on this bed soon cover the whole surface with a 
dense matting of trailing shoots. There is a variety which 
is very shy in yielding its fruit, and this should, of course, 
be avoided. If the prolific variety be employed, from a 
bed thirty or forty feet in length, by five or six in breadth, 
a quantity of berries may be procured sufficient for the 
supply of a family throughout the year. The fruit is easily 
preserved in bottles. The native Cranberry (Ozycoccus 
palustris) may be treated in the same manner, and in some 
