484 On the Cultivation of the American Cranberry 



In April 1818, I filled half a dozen shallow boxes, each 

 about eighteen inches square, and four inches deep, with 

 peat earth, and planted in them, at one inch apart, cuttings* 

 of the Cranberry, about an inch and a half in length, placing 

 them in my Melon bed, where they were frequently watered ; 

 the cuttings rooted freely and threw out strong shoots, and 

 in the J une following they were fit to plant out. 



Having collected from a dry hill, where wild Heaths 

 flourished in abundance, a sufficient quantity of peat earth, 

 such as Cushing in his Exotic Gardenerf describes under 

 that name, I formed a bed one hundred and fifty feet long 

 by four feet wide. In order to give the plants room to 

 extend their roots freely, I caused eighteen inches in width 

 of the centre part of this bed to be excavated throughout 

 its whole length to the depth of two feet, and having first 

 covered about two inches of the bottom of the trench with 

 small wood, I filled it up with the peat earth, well trod in ; 

 on the sides of the bed, to the extent of its width, I put.only 

 six inches depth of this mould. About the end of June 

 1818, I placed one row of plants in the centre of this bed, 

 about two feetj apart from each other in the row, these soon 

 put forth luxuriant runners, extending before the winter to 

 the edges of the bed. At the close of the year J 81 9, the 



* The cuttings may be taken from any part of the old plants, for the old wood 

 will root equally as well as the young branches. 



f Second edition, page 156. The peat earth used had no part of the turf or 

 sod in it ; that had previously been taken off to the thickness of about two inches, 

 and dried for fuel. 



+ If planted four or six feel apart in the row in the centre of the bed, the shoots 

 would soon meet. 



