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VoL LX. No. 2684. 
NEW YORK, JULY 6, 1901 
«1 PER YEAR. 
MODERN CRANBERRY CULTURE, 
ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES OF THE KU8INE8S 
How to Start a Bog. 
A GOOD BUSINESS.—That all inte>’GSterl in cran¬ 
berry culture will object to some of the methods de¬ 
scribed here is expected, and perhaps there may not 
be any one grower who will agree with them all. I 
am not going to complain of this, because most of 
the methods herein described are original with us, 
and as yet have not been adopted by other growers 
to any great extent.' With present prices of cran¬ 
berries, ranging from $3 to $6 per barrel, it becomes 
necessary to depart from the old methods and re¬ 
sort to those that are practical and up-to-date in 
order to eliminate as far as possible the element of 
chance in the business, and insure a profit to the 
grower. What I desire to do is to describe in plain 
English how to select, prepare and care for a cran¬ 
berry bog, and in doing this I shall refrain from ad¬ 
vancing any theories, and shall describe only those 
methods that I know to have been successfully tried. 
At the outset it is stated 
that these instructions are 
intended to apply with 
equal force to all localities 
and conditions, but any ex¬ 
ceptions will be carefully 
noted. Formerly, any 
swamp that could not bo 
flowed at short notice to 
prevent frost from injuring 
the fruit was considered 
worthless, but with the in¬ 
troduction of earlier and 
hardier varieties of fruit 
this theory has become ex¬ 
ploded, and among the 
most successful bogs there 
are many “dry” ones. 
WATER.—Of course wa¬ 
ter has its uses in cran¬ 
berry culture, and I shall 
speak of them later, but at 
the beginning of making a 
bog it is more important to 
get it off the swamp than 
to get it on. This brings 
me to the subject of drain¬ 
age, which is really *he 
first thing to be consider¬ 
ed, and I earnestly advise 
everyone before investing 
any money in r o u g h 
swamp to be sure that it 
can be properly drained. It 
is imperative that the surface of the bog be kept dry 
from the middle of April until after harvesting. It is 
to he expected that during the Winter more or less 
water will collect in swamps, especially where the sur¬ 
rounding land is high. This does no harm, but is 
rather a benefit if the bog is submerged deep enough. 
It is dangerous, however, to have it flooded but a few 
inches, for if ice is made among the vines, it will not 
only winterkill them, but is liable to pull them out 
by the roots. Either flood deep or not at all is a good 
rule to follow. 
marsh or SWAMP.—The next thing to consider 
is the swamp itself, and right here is a good time to 
distinguish between marshes and swamps. Marshes, 
according to my idea, are tracts of low, wet land that 
are covered with grass, and so far as I can find out are 
worthless to cranberry growers. In view of the fact 
that one man I know vainly spent $200,000 in trying 
to grow cranberries on them, I advise others to let 
them alone. Swamps, generally, are covered with 
wood, and while those that are covered with maple 
or huckleberry are considered the most valuable, on 
account of the rich peat bottom, any swamp is worth 
making into bog provided it does not contain alkali, 
lime or oil. Another thing that is very important 
in the construction of a cranberry bog is coarse sand 
or gravel. Either through ignorance of its value, or 
on account of the extra expense, this item has been 
slighted by many growers, to their cost. Experience 
teaches that it is indispensable in the making of a 
successful bog for the reason that it checks a too 
rapid growth of the vines, and prevents them from 
growing wmody and unfruitful. It also keeps the 
weeds down, and prevents the sun from drawing the 
moisture out of the peat bottom of the swamp. The 
sand should contain no alkali, lime or loam; shoukl 
be loose and gravelly, and all stones larger than a 
hen’s egg should be taken out before it is spread on 
the swamp. Just what a swamp that is suitable for 
making into a cranberry bog is worth in its rough 
state depends considerably on its location. On or 
in the vicinity of Cape Cod, Mass., its value is not 
far from $100 per acre, and much higher prices have 
been paid for exceptionally good pieces. 
CADE COD FRUIT.—While it is a fact that Cape 
Cod cranberries bring better prices than those grown 
elsewhere, it does not follow that they are the best, 
and I believe, in fact I know, that they can be grown 
equally as well in other places. One reason why Cape 
Cod berries arc so good is that there cranberry cul¬ 
ture has been a succession of experiments for more 
than 30 years, with the result that the culture has 
been reduced to a science, and at present each grower 
knows just what variety is best suited to his bog. 
Another reason is that in making a bog there they 
spare no expense, for they know that a bog properly 
made will bear good crops, and is easily cared for. 
THE COST.—The cost of making varies, according 
to whether the drainage is natural or artificial, and 
how far one has to go for sand, but the average price 
is not far from $200 per acre. Allowing $100 as the 
value of the rough swamp, we have a total cost of 
$300 per acre for bog that is ready to set out. The 
cost of caring for an acre of bog for four years, or 
until it is ready to bear a full crop, is very small, 
and the berries harvested the second and third years 
ought more than to cover all expenses of care. When 
the bog is four years old it is worth at least $1,000 per 
acre, being an increase in four years of $700. It is 
no wonder that cranberry culture is the chief indus¬ 
try of Cape Cod, and that rough swamps bring such 
high prices. 
SOME ESSENTIALS.—Many farmers in other 
places who have tried to grow cranberries and failed 
have thought that their swamps were not adapted 
to the fruit, and complained that there was no money 
in the business. Upon investigation we found that 
either ignorance or a mistaken sense of economy pre¬ 
vented them from properly preparing the bog. Some, 
after removing the wood from the swamp, tried to 
plow and harrow the surface as if they were prepar¬ 
ing a field for turnips. Others spent considerable 
money in ditching and grading, and then spoiled the 
whole thing by putting on loam instead of sand, the 
loam being easier to get at, and costing less to put 
on than sand. It is the results of such attempts as 
these that have discouraged others from going into 
the business, and it is a fact that there are swamp 
owners within 50 miles of 
Cape Cod who do not be¬ 
lieve there is a profit in 
cranberries. They claim 
that they have tried it, and 
know all about it, and that 
at present prices there is 
no money in it; that it 
costs too much to harvest 
the fruit; that they never 
had good crops; that their 
vines were eaten by worms, 
and that their bogs were 
overrun with weeds. No 
one is to blame for this 
state of affairs but them¬ 
selves. If they had spent 
a little more money in 
making the bogs properly 
at the start, and then 
taken care of them after¬ 
wards, they would have 
had no just cause for com¬ 
plaint. In a previous ar¬ 
ticle I have briefly explain¬ 
ed how to prepare a cran¬ 
berry bog, but it will do 
no harm to explain it 
again a little more care¬ 
fully, for since writing it 
I have been in receipt of 
numeroiis letters from per 
sons who were interested, 
asking for more informa¬ 
tion. “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing 
well,” is a motto that can be applied to the making of 
a cranberry bog, and I presume it is the same with 
the description of the making, therefore I shall re¬ 
serve that for another chapter, in which 1 shall care¬ 
fully describe the most practical methods and also the 
implements used in construction, r. a. makepeace. 
Massachusetts. 
OATS AND PEAS.^—Fig. 197 shows a crop of oats 
and peas at the New Jersey Experiment Station— 
ready to be cut. This combination of green food is 
a favorite one with many dairymen. It gives just 
about an ideal green forage ration for milck cows. 
When making rations out of other green crops Prof. 
Voorhees takes oats and peas for the standard. The 
picture shows the oats well headed out, and this is 
about the right time for cutting either for green for¬ 
age or hay. Oat and pea hay, when well cured, 
makes a good Winter forage to feed with silage. We 
think it better to make good hay of the crop rather 
than to let the seeds ripen fully and thrash them out. 
