fa*' 
NEW YORK, APRIL 8, 1882 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1832, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
sod-hook. Put a layer of sod on either edge 
of the ditch. 
FINDING THE HIGHT OF THE DAM. 
This work done, take the spirit level, 
go to the head of the ditch and proceed 
to find the level of the ground : take two nar¬ 
row strips of board ; cut them five feet long ; 
mark oil’ four feet on one ; sharpen both stakes ; 
run one In the ground until you come to the 
four-feet mark ; put the other in thegroimd so 
that the level can rest on both tops with the 
bubble plumb in the center ; send one man 
with u stake down to the point where you 
wish to construct the dam. Let him hold 
Borne object against the stake, and by means 
of the sights on the level you can mark the 
level on the stake. This done, measure the 
distance from the mark on the stake down 
to the surface. The stakes upholding the 
level are four feet besides the level and 
sight; subtract this distance from 
the hight on the lower stake, and 
you have the slope of the marsh. 
If possible malic the dam high 
enough so that when the water 
• reaches the top of it there will he 
a foot of water next to the reser- 
, n . 
voir. 
BUILDING THE DAM. 
Having located the dam and 
learned the required hight—say 
four feet—make a ditch about four 
feet wide just where you mean to 
N D put the dam; place the sod as rep¬ 
resented in the cross section at a, a, 
Fig. 110 and after you have removed 
it with your shovel take out two 
depths of muck if the water will 
permit. Put it behind the sodas 
7 A represented by b, b ; take a few rods 
/ \ j at a time and finish it up and you 
- -- will the better escape the water. 
" <<' / Having completed this part, go 
to your high bank and with a 
wheelbarrow, car or horse-power, 
/ begin to fill the ditch with sand (I 
- ? am making these observations from 
•; a sandy country), until it attains a 
hight of about a foot more than is 
; required. If sod for faciug the 
sand is lacking, the small ditch, 
marked in the diagram Fig. 108, run 
_ jhst a little off from the dam, will 
v. partly supply it. Make up the de¬ 
ficiency from other ditches, for I 
would not recommend anyone to 
leave any sod where it will be of 
- ?' no use. 
common hay-knife constructed by the 
next blacksmith like that shown at Fig. 109; 
also a bill hook which can be found very 
handy in uprooting some of the smaller brush ; 
add a line with stakes attached so as to make 
the work straight, anil I believe we have for¬ 
gotten nothing. 
DRAINING THE MARSH. 
If one has plenty of capital and a large 
force of laborers, it matters very little where 
heliogiushis work, provided ho will be able 
to finish it before the frost puts a stop to it; 
but If one’s circumstances are similar to those 
of the writer when he “ pioneered” in the 
work, it will be absolutely necessary to do tbe 
most important work first, without regard 
to the second, and it is after this plan of 
necessity that I will proceed. First, then, 
drain the marsh by means of a main ditch : 
WESTERN CRANBERRY CULTURE, 
CRANBERRY MARSHES. 
The Wisconsin cranberry marshes with 
which I havo become acquainted, uro man¬ 
aged generally as follows : As there is still a 
vast amount of marsh land belonging to the 
State, suppose we take a tri p and explore some 
of these lands. We find here a large tract of 
land covered with tamarack ; a closer inspec¬ 
tion reveals the fact that the uneven surface 
is sprinkled slightly with cranberry vines 
and berries : vinos very delicate, 
berries very small, somewhat flat¬ 
tened at the blossom and stem ends. 
Before they turn rod they become 
speckled, and are known here as 
tamarack berries. The fine flavor 
of this berry is not equaled by ^ 
any other with which I am ac- As 
quainted. Wo do not like this 
prospect, however—too much labor 
or expense to remove the taina- V ^ 
racks; the berries too are the 
poorest bearers, hence the whole ,v 
would have to be re-sot with 
stronger-growing vines, bearing 
larger fruit. Next wo approach a 
marsh sprinkled thickly with marsh 
birch, feather-leaf and sagebrush; 
here wo find vines bearing from & 
ordinary to large berries ; but the 
objection here is the labor of clear- L5 
ing up, and a shallow peat, which 
the presence of the marsh birch gen- HE: 
erally indicates. We survey an- 
other field ; we see before us an /==- 
oiK'ii marsh with here and there a 
patch of fivvther-leaf, a little sage 
and, perhaps, some birch, but '■&. 
mostly open marsh covered with a Vgr 
short growth of grass. We walk 
over this uud find vines in very nn- ?. 
expected aud expected places, some- 
times forming a solid bed and again £? 
thinly scattered, Generally we 
find whore the vines are the thick- 
est the fruit is sparse. We notice, 
too, that some of the vines are _ 
stripped of their leaves: others \ Jf ; 
again show that a noble effort was --‘C \':j 
made to produce fruit, hut the > ^ if; 
dried up berries hang on the stem, A? x 
mere hulls, skin perforated with a vi 
hole about the size of a pin head. 
With all these imperfections we 
come to the conclusion, after test¬ 
ing the quality of the soil, which 
wo find to be a springy hog vary¬ 
ing in thickness from t.wo to six 
feet, that we will‘'pitch our tent” 
hero —even if we find wo must pur¬ 
chase the land at “second hand.” 
[HKSERVOIIl 
DAM 
CONSTRUCTING A SLUICE GATE. 
^3 Next, construct a gate for this 
/ dam and across the main ditch. 
•fjr There are many ways of construct¬ 
ing this, but the more expeusive 
they are, the less they seem to 
auswer the purpose. For a gate 
three or four feet wide I would 
recommend this plan. Use inch 
boards for the flume ; take a plank 
about 10 feet long, level It on one 
edge and sink it below the bottom 
j\ of the ditch as far as you can 
drive ft down with a sledge ; make 
the floor of the flume level with 
the top of this plank or of another 
sot on top of it; put the plank in 
about the middle of the dam, and 
set the gate hoards on top of it. Let the 
floor extend os far behind the gate-boards 
as it projects in front. The boards in the 
wings on each side of the flume should be 
driven down with a sledge. Other portions 
of the work can easily be seen by the cut. 
For frame work it is not necessary to use 
anything stronger than 4x4 timbers. 
MAKING OTHER DAMS AND SLUICES. 
The next work will be the dam across the 
creek with a gate In it, to divert the water 
DAM 
REQUIREMENTS, 
But before wo grow enthusiastic, 
we must not forget the water fa¬ 
cilities, for, next to the land, this is 
of most importance. We soon dis¬ 
cover the natural slope, and if this is 
no more than a foot to half a mile so much the 
better. We begin to truce up and And a large 
body of marsh with the surface sloping in the 
direction of our pet spot, or we find that a 
creek can be mmle to serve ou r purpose. Also 
in getting the “ lay of the land” we must no¬ 
tice whether we can make a reservoir with¬ 
out much expense. AII those questions having 
been answered in the alii rmative, we are ready 
to secure our site, roll up our sleeves and to 
business. Berries are now ripe and lief ore it 
AN IDEAL CRANBERRY MARSH.— Fig. 108 
begin at the point marked d in the diagram, 
moving upwards until you reach the poiut 
where it is intended to make the reservoir. Keep 
the middle of the marsh ns nearly as possible : 
set stakes on this line at convenient distances ; 
stretch the line betweeuthese stakes; now 
with the ditch-knife cut near the line, inclining 
the knife so that the ditch will be narrower 
at the bottom than at the top. Make the 
ditch not less than three feet wide ; cut the 
sod up into blocks handy to lift out with the 
Now, after showing what is to be done I 
will endeavor to give instructions how to do 
it. The “outfit" for the work should consist of 
two pairs of gum boots, a shovel, axe, saw 
aud several other carpenter tools for construct¬ 
ing gates and sluices besides the buildings that 
will be needed. A reliuble spirit level Is an 
indispensable implement in constructing the 
dams There will also be required a sod 
hook, like a potato hook only with longer 
and roiiuded tines ; next, a ditch knife—a 
