106 



CEAXBERRY CULTUEE. 



First. — A peat or muck soil, free from loam or clav. 

 Second. — Clean beach sand for covering the i)eat. 

 Third. — A dam and water, to overflow the vines when 

 necessary. 



Fourth. — Thorougli drainage. 



TVith all these ad\ antages, apparently, there have been 

 some fdlures — without them I know of no one who lias 

 profitably cultivated this crop. 



The limit of profitable cultivation of the cranberry 

 will probably be found bt^tAveen the thirty-ninth and forty- 

 second degrees of latitude. Xorth of this, tiie period b-.^- 

 tween the ripening of the berry and frost is too short for 

 harvesting the frtiit. Sotith of it. the tempe rat tire is too 

 great for properly ripening the fruit. 



Frosted berries are improved for immediate use, but 

 will not bear carriage. 



When the fruit is grown, and ripening, exposui'e to the 

 suii^ with a temperature of ninety degrees, Fahrenheit, 

 scalds the fruit, and renders it worthless. 



Good cranberry ground can be selected with much cer- 

 tainty by observing the nattiral growth of vegetation : 

 the best are those deep peat bottoms, in which the VThite 

 Cedar or Jimiper flourishes. 



Next in value are the hc^ath prnid-. with a thinner muck 

 deposit, generally marked by a growth of Gander Bush 

 i Cassandro. caly' Vlat'i) \ if these can be flowed with 

 brandy-colorc'l cedar swamp watc^r (which derives its 

 color from the muck or peat held in solution), they are 

 verv little inferior in vaku? to the first. Other s« ils may 

 sometimes repay the expense of preparation, but are best 

 avoided. 



Good unimprovc'l cranberry soil, without timber, is 

 worth from twenty-five to fifty dollars per acre. 



Properly preparing and planting the ground costs from 

 one hundred and fifty to five hundred dollars per acre. 



First-class mea^lows, Avith tiiree-year-old vines, have a 



