4:4:6 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[ December, 
Tim Bunker on Cape Cod and Cranberries. 
“And when you have taken Hie life all out 
of your land and got it so poor that nothing 
else will grow, then what will you do ?” I asked. 
“It is then just right for cranberries,” said 
Gilbert. “You lay off the sand or gravel into 
rows eighteen inches apart, the rows running 
both ways, and plant the vines at the corners. 
We have tried seed sowing, but that is a very 
slow process. We have tried running the vines 
through a hay cutter, but that is not very satis¬ 
factory. The thing we have settled upon as 
the best, is planting the vines that are cut off at 
the surface of the ground. The planter takes 
three or four of the vines and with a dibble 
thrusts them down into the ground about four 
inches. The lower part of the vines are bent 
double, as they are pushed downward. The 
soil is pressed lightly about the vines. When 
a bog is just set it is a good plan to raise the 
water even with the surface for a day to settle 
the sand. This is better than to press the sand 
too hard. If the vines are planted in April or 
May it does not make so much difference about 
the sunshine. If later in the season it will be 
better to take cloudy days or late in the after¬ 
noon for planting.” 
“And is there any difference in the kind of 
vines you plant?” I asked. 
“Ye-,” said uncle Gilbert, “ there is as much 
difference in cranberries as there is in folks. 
Some are all leaves and vines and others run to 
fruit. The whole ground seems to be covered 
with cranberries in a good season. The large 
cherry and bell cranberries are the best. The 
bugle and small cherry are not desirable. Then 
it is better to select vines from patches that are 
known to bear well. Quite a large trade is car¬ 
ried on in the sale of vines for the purpose of 
stocking new plantations. They are sold for 
$1.50 to $2.50 per barrel, and it takes from 6 to 
15 barrels to plant an acre according to the skill 
of the planter. Six are enough if they are 
planted right. Three or four stalks in a hill 
are just as good as a dozen. If j'ou plant ever 
so many only a few will live and grow. With 
a small number of stalks they seem to start 
stronger and cover the ground sooner.” 
“ How much cultivating do you give the 
vines?” I asked. 
“ Wal not much, if you have done the work 
thoroughly. The only object of cultivating is 
to keep down the weeds until the vines have a 
chance to cover the ground. This should be 
done with the hoe or the hands as is most con¬ 
venient. A push hoc is a very handy thing to 
run between the rows.” 
“And how is it about the flowing?” 
“ There is quite a difference of practice among 
good growers in this respect. Some put the 
water on very soon after they get their crop off 
in the fall, and keep the bog covered two or 
three feet until the last of May. This is prob¬ 
ably the best plan if it can be done. But a 
good many have not water enough to flow so 
deep, and they keep their patches about as wet 
as they can. If the bog is situated so that the 
water running through is subject to flood, great 
care must be taken to keep the vines so far under 
water that they will not be frozen into the ice. 
Great injury is often done in this way. The 
vines are torn out by the roots, and floated off. 
It is better not to have any water on the sur¬ 
face than to suffer this injury. Though flooding 
is essential to the largest success, there are a 
great many patches that raise fair crops that 
cannot be flowed.” 
“And when do you flow in summer?” 
“ Some times.a frost threatens in June after 
the water has been drawn off. The vines that 
have been kept under water are quite tender 
and a slight frost will destroy the blossoms. 
Flowing for a night protects them. The fruit 
also is liable to be injured by frosts in Septem¬ 
ber and October, and flowing is a complete pro¬ 
tection. A single night’s flowing on a ten acre 
bog would sometimes make a difference of 
thousands of dollars in the value of the crop. 
Frost-bitten cranberries will not bring more 
than half price. A neighbor had a ten acre 
patch caught in this way last season. On the 
1st of September he had 500 bills, of as nice 
looking cranberries as you ever laid eyes on. 
He delayed picking a -week longer than he 
ought to, and lost 200 barrels, worth three 
thousand dollars. His bog was so situated that 
he could not flow at pleasure.” 
“And don’t the vines ever get injured by 
the flooding?” I inquired. 
“ Yes, sometimes in summer there will come 
a heavy rain, and flood a piece that is not well 
drained, and scald the vines and spoil the crop. 
This shows the importance of good drainage.” 
“ How long do you flow to kill worms ?” 
“ Only a short time. One night will finish 
them. If you kept the water on long it would 
destroy the crop more than the worms would. 
For I think the fruit worm thins out the fruit, 
and what remains grows larger and we get 
as good a crop as we should if they did not 
trouble us. Then Ave have a vine worm about 
three-quarters of an inch long, of a bluish cast, 
with a black head. Flowing is a sure remedy 
for this and it destroys most of the fruit worms.” 
“How is it about growing cranberries on up¬ 
land,” I asked. “ Will they do anything ?” 
“Just about,” said Gilbert with a twinkle in 
his eye, “except bear fruit. We have tried it 
down here, and the vines grow and bear a little, 
but they don’t pay for planting as a rule. You 
see the upland planting is generally advocated 
by men who have no good bogs, or by those 
who have plenty of vines to sell, or some ax 
to grind. The plant is at home only in sand, 
peat and water. Frogs will live on land for a 
time, but a dry spell brings them up all standin’. 
You must consult natur if you are gwiue to do 
anything with cranberries.” 
“And when you have your crop raised, how 
do you gather them?” I inquired. 
“We begin to pick as soon as the crop is well 
reddened, soon after the 1st of September. We 
seldom get any frosts down here before the last 
of the month, and that is one great advantage 
of our location. The sea breeze keeps off 
the early frosts. The picking is all done by 
hand. The cranberry rake has been tried, but 
it did so much damage to the vines, and gather¬ 
ed so much litter with the fruit, that it was 
given up. The cheapest kind of help is em¬ 
ployed, and women and children flock to the 
cranberry meadows in the picking season ready 
for work. It takes about one overseer to thirty 
pickers, and the price paid for the labor is from 
l‘| 2 to 2 cents a quart. It used to be one cent, 
but Cape Cod is not so far out of the world, but 
it feels the rise in prices. Some pick in boxes 
made of lath that hold a bushel, and which 
cost about 20 cents a piece, and others pick in 
four quart boxes. The overseer measures the 
fruit as it is brought in, and keeps account with 
the pickers. The fruit is cleaned with a lath 
sieve. This is found to be better than winnow¬ 
ing, as it guards the fruit against bruises. As 
soon as the fruit is dry it is put in barrels that 
hold 101 quarts, dry measure. They are made 
by the Cape Cod Cranberry Association, and 
have their brand upon them, so that everybody 
knows just what he gets for a barrel. They cost 
65 cents a piece. Coopering is quite a business 
down here. The berries are generally marketed 
as soon as they are picked. Those which grow 
on laud flooded until June 1st are thought to 
keep the best. Fruit men come around and en¬ 
gage the crop before the picking begins. We 
can generally tell by the 1st of September what 
the crop will be, and what it ought to bring.” 
“Now,” says I, “I want to know it.” 
“Wal,” said Gilbert, “you have eyes in your 
head, -and see cranberry patches spreading 
every where. It must pay unless our folks 
down here are all fools. I have a patch of 2 1 ] 3 
acres, not so well situated as some of my neigh¬ 
bors, and I have kept debt and credit account 
with it for the last ten years. It cost me about 
$600 lo get it started. It has paid me a thousand 
dollars a year net profit for the last ten years.” 
Now if you will take Gilbert’s light out from 
under the Cape Cod bushel, and put it on your 
candlestick, the whole country' will see just 
how cranberries are raised, and what is the 
matter with folks that fail. 
Hookertown, Conn., ) Yours to Command, 
Oct. loth, 1S69. S' Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
“ I Must Stop My Paper.” 
A canvasser for a club of subscribers at the 
West says he fears his list will fall off this win¬ 
ter, as several he has called on to renew say 
that, “grain is so low, I must stop my paper 
this year ; I like it, and would be glad to con¬ 
tinue it, but think it not expedient.”—Is not 
this a mistaken policy ? Is the paper the first 
thing to be dispensed with ? If produce is low, 
and extra effort is required to keep things go¬ 
ing, is there not the greater need of all the 
helps and hints we can get? This paper, for 
example, is edited by a goodly number of prac¬ 
tical men, cultivators of farms, who themselves 
feel and appreciate the present circumstances, 
and they r are all the while on the look-out for 
any' item and any hint or suggestion that will 
help themselves and help others. It is impossi¬ 
ble that they should not gather and give to 
their readers information that will help them 
far more than the cost of subscription for the 
paper, which, by the way, is little above the 
cost of the white paper it is printed upon. 
(Advertisers pay all the expenses of printing, 
office work, engravings, etc.) The running ex¬ 
penses of even a very small farm are seldom less 
than $800 a year. One cent, or less, on each two 
dollars will not be a great tax, and it is next to 
impossible that the hints received through such 
a paper during a whole year, and the thoughts 
awakened, should fail to increase the product, 
or aid in economizing, far more than the paper 
costs. Ninety-nine men in every hundred, will 
be saved many times the cost of the paper in 
what it will guard them from expending in 
foolish or injudicious investments. Aside from 
information he may gather for his own work, 
the interest afforded to his family by the En¬ 
gravings, and by the Household and Children’s 
Departments, ought not to be entirely neglect¬ 
ed. The hints about crops, markets, modes of 
culture, etc., afforded by the “Walks and Talks 
Upon the Farm,” such as will be found in this 
number for example, will alone pay every culti¬ 
vator. These Walks and Talks are written 
from actual experience, by'a practical cultivator 
of a large farm, who is constantly studying how 
he shall make his farming pay. They will be 
continued all through the next volume. 
