1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
251 
few to encourage him, plenty to ridicule and 
call him a fool, and plenty to foretell his failure, 
and although he had but one leg, with that he 
hobbled on and over all the stumbling blocks 
which the kind-hearted incredulity of his neigh¬ 
bors could throw in his way, and finally suc¬ 
ceeded in getting out vines from time to time 
until he now has a bog of ten acres, and though 
it is smaller than many now in our county, 
yet he has taken from it I know not how many 
thousand dollars, but enough to make him 
measurably independent, and he was recently 
offered $9000 for six acres. 
Location anb Quality of Soil. —In select¬ 
ing a spot on which to embark in this business, 
four things should be kept constantly in mind, 
namely: climate, location, price and condition 
of the soil. In the first place, success very 
much depends upon climate. Cranberries grow 
in great quantities spontaneously in Wisconsin 
and Minnesota. But they are an uncerlain crop 
there, because they cannot stand frost when in 
blossom. For this reason Cape Cod cannot 
compete with New Jersey, and also because she 
has not a sufficient supply of suitable soil. It 
begins to be known that cranberries are a bet¬ 
ter fruit, and a more certain crop here than 
they are East or West, North or South of this 
State. I have little faith in dry land operations, 
and will here notice one of the indispensable 
qualities of cranberry soil, and answer the fre¬ 
quent question, “ will they do well on upland ?” 
I answer no, if it has not a moist bottom. 
But it should not be forgotten that some up¬ 
land is really wet. They can be made to grow 
to some extent on ordinary garden soil, and so 
can rice. But they don’t belong there; are 
never found growing there spontaneously; and 
in my opinion they will never pay there. Some 
think that vines may succeed in such soil at 
some future time, and some may also believe 
that we may yet find sheep and shad yoked up 
together—a profitable team on dry land or in 
the ocean; but I don’t. If any still cling to the 
“ upland ” theory, let them go down to Cape 
Cod and call on Capt. Cyrus Cahoon, of the 
town of Harwich, and they will probably get 
information on the subject which will be satis¬ 
factory. At any rate the Captain’s experiments 
and failures were a lesson to me that I shall not 
soon forget. I saw some of his vines still stand¬ 
ing in dry sand, although he had settled most 
of the ground about 2 feet, I should think, by 
carting off the sand and dumping it in a pond 
near at hand, and thus he “ killed two birds 
with one stone,” by improving one lot, and by 
raising up out of the lake another, at the ex¬ 
pense of nearly $700 per acre, which he con¬ 
sidered a good investment. In answer to a 
question about upland cultivation, he remark¬ 
ed that he thought the vines if left standing 
where they were, would cover the ground in 
about eight years. 
While speaking of the characteristics of the 
soil, we may as well answer another question, 
“Will they do well on land very wet?” No. 
They may yield moderately, but not well, if 
they do not fail altogether. I must again refer 
the reader to the Captain’s experience. His 
first experiment was a failure because his bog 
was too wet. His next experiment was a fail¬ 
ure because his bog was too dry. His third ex¬ 
periment was a perfect success because his bog 
was just rights and neither wet nor drj'. As 
for my own experience I could say some¬ 
thing about upland experiments, if it were 
necessary, but I will here say a word about the 
other extreme. I put out seven acres, and nev¬ 
er got a berry, and abandonee! the whole lot, 
because I could not drain the Atlantic Ocean. 
Not being familiar with the place, nor on the 
spot at the time, I was not aware that the tide 
would back up the fresh water in my ditches 
so that I could not sufficiently drain the land. 
Another question is often asked, namely: 
“ shall we sow seeds ?” I answer no. I have 
tried the experiment in the water and out of 
the water, in dry land and wet land, in pots 
and in the soil, subjected to frost and without 
frost, and have had a few seeds germinate, but 
have never matured a single plant, and if I could 
succeed it would not pay, for three reasons: It 
takes too long if they do grow; it costs too 
much to keep the grass out while the vines are 
coming in to take and keep possession of the 
soil; and finally the berries for planting cost 
more than the vines, as one bushel of the 
former will buy two barrels of the latter. 
Pbeparing the Ground. —The first thing 
called for, if the ground be wet, is drainage— 
ditches of sufiicient depth, wudth and number, 
to thoroughly drain every part of the bog. It 
often happens that a ditch cut on the line be¬ 
tween the wet and the dry land will so cut off 
the springs which run in from the high sur¬ 
rounding ground, as to effectually drain the 
swamp. Good drainage very much depends 
upon this, and by thus wisely locating the 
ditches much labor may be saved. Grubbing 
is the next step, and on some kinds of soil it is 
no trifling matter. The expense of preparing 
the ground for the vines is greatly modified by 
the condition of the soil in regard to roots, 
stumps, etc. There is so much difference in 
this respect, between savanna lands and cedar 
swamps, that the former is better worth $100, 
than the latter is worth 100 cents per acre. 
After grubbing, if the ground have a tough sod 
or peaty surface, it should be floated (skinned) 
and the sods burned and ashes scattered, or the 
turf may be carted off and put into fence or 
compost. All low spots must be filled up so 
that water will readily run off. When the 
ground is cleared of every thing that would in¬ 
terfere with the growth of the vines, ciean sand 
free fi'om loam is wheeled on and spread to 
the depth of 2 to 6 inches. The ground is 
then ready for the vines. So much for swamp 
preparation.—If we take the savanna or moist 
land for our bog, we shall have a much easier 
task. We shall have less ditching, grubbing or 
floating, or sanding, perhaps none, for such 
land can usually be plowed, which in many 
cases will turn up sand enough; and there will 
also be less weeding. Hence it is very easy to 
discover why savanna land is worth $100 per 
acre more than cedar swamp, let the price of 
of the latter be what it may. After plowing 
thoroughly, and harrowing and raking off the 
roots, etc., the ground is usually considered 
ready for the vines, which are set in stools, 
from 10 inches to 3 feet apart. 
I will now briefly notice the course which I 
am determined to follow in preparing the 
ground in future. After the bog is ready for 
the plow, I shall keep the plow and the harrow 
on it for one entire summer and also most 
of the autumn, and longer if necessary, giv¬ 
ing an interval between plowing sufliciently 
long to encourage the germination of every 
seed thus brought to the surface, and in due 
season again apply the plow and harrow, and 
thus alternately produce vegetation and des¬ 
truction. As early the following spring as the 
ground will admit, the land should be made 
mellow and level, and should if necessary be 
I sanded, and then it is I’eady for the vines. A 
diversity of opinion about the proper distance 
apart for vines sometimes bewilders the begin¬ 
ner, but I am satisfied that they are generally 
too thickly set. I put out 3 acres at about 18 
inches apart, and having many vines left, as I 
did not get my ground ready for them as I ex¬ 
pected, we w'ent over the lot the second time, 
and a part of it the third time, and consequent¬ 
ly the vines were very thick, and I supposed 
that I should have my ground covered at once 
with both vines and fruit. The result was, I 
had too many runners, and too few hearers. 
The next spring I put out 15 acres, and set my 
vines three feet apart, which was a great saving 
of vines and labor, and I think my last bog will 
be the best in a little time. One of my neigh¬ 
bors, an intelligent gentleman, A. A. Stanton, 
Esq., who owns an immense tract of land here, 
put out some vines last season, and he furrowed 
out his ground 3 feet apart each way, and put 
in his vines at the crossings and hauled the dirt 
on to them, just leaving the tops a little out, 
and I never saw vines do better. 
Perhaps I should notice an objection that 
may be made to spending so long a season in 
preparing the ground, as I have proposed 
above. The only olijection that can be made 
is, a desire to save time. But, a little experi¬ 
ence in saving time the backward wmy, has 
somewhat modified my ardor for being in a 
hurry. At the commencement of my boyish 
operations I too thought that time was every¬ 
thing, and consequently left orders to have 5 
acres put out as soon as possible and returned 
to my residence in the city. What was the re¬ 
sult? It was hastily made to look like a cran¬ 
berry bog, and people began to congratulate 
me on being able to retire. Well, it being un¬ 
usually grassy at the beginning, there was at 
that moment from 10,000 to 12,000 living grass 
roots in the ground to one cranberry vine, al¬ 
though too many of the latter, which were about 
18 inches apart, and the result w'as that the run¬ 
ners soon prevented the use of hoes, and much 
of the grass could not be pulled up by the roots, 
and was only broken off to grow again ; and after 
fighting the grass, weeds and briers, two sea¬ 
sons, I became ashamed of the lot, and put on 
a force to see what could be done toward sub¬ 
duing it, and the result was that 20 days work 
apparently cleaned up 20 square rods, at which 
rate it would have cost me $1000 to have gone 
over the lot, and clearly revealed the fact that 
if I had devoted one season to subduing the 
bog as above recommended, I should have been 
more than a $1000 better off, twice told; for 
where I should have gathered 500 bushels of 
berries, I have not received 50, nor do I expect 
half a crop on that field until it is le-set. 
A New Vine Disease. —Last season there 
appeared upon the vines around New York a 
disease W'hich has this season showed itself 
still more generally. It seems to attack the 
Concord in preference to other varieties, and if 
not checked, threatens to be a serious matter to 
vine growers. It first shows itself by swellings 
on the freshly formed wood, and later appears 
as well defined blotches with a surface depres¬ 
sed somewhat below the general surface of the 
stem. The growth of the branch, thus affected, 
is arrested and the fruit drops. This has been 
attributed to wounds made by the common Junc- 
bug, but this can hardly be the case, as culti¬ 
vators, who have carefully watched their vines, 
assure us that they are unable to discover that 
insects have any agency in the matter. 
