Practical papers— cranberry culture. 397 
tance you choose, or by sowing seed in early spring. Vines 
planted three or four feet apart will, under favorable conditions, 
cover the surface in four years. I know of one instance where a 
small sod of cranberry vines taken from the Sacket marsh and 
planted in another, spread so rapidly that in seven years, eighteen 
bushels of berries were harvested from it. After a marsh is 
stocked, a substantial dam and waste gates should be built at the 
best point at the outlet, to flow and regulate the water on the 
marsh. The water should be put on about the first of November 
and drawn down to surface of marsh by the first of June, and as 
soon as the fruit is set, it should be lowered four or five inches in 
the ditches. As the crop approaches maturity, continue to lower 
the water, and have the ditches dry if possible at picking time, 
which commences about the twentieth of September. Picking is 
done by men, women and children, at six shillings per bushel. 
Women are the best pickers, getting from three to five bushels 
per day. On large marshes, the fruit is taken on a car by rail to 
the storehouse, where it is elevated to the upper story, and run 
off into bins. 
I now come to the most important part of cranberry culture, and 
which is the least understood. The curing of cranberries. This 
fruit should not be stored in bulk to a depth that will cause it 
to heat; as heating and sweating destroy the enamel on the sur¬ 
face of the berry, and the fruit soon decays. Hence they should 
be stored in shallow bins not to exceed one foot in depth, and these 
bins shpuld be so arranged as to drop the fruit from one above to 
the next below. This will air the fruit from time to time, and by 
the time it reaches the lower tier of bins, it will be fit to barrel, if 
obliged to be done on account of want of storage. In barreling, 
the fruit is first run through a fanning mill; then poured on to an 
inclined board and run from thence into barrels, being looked over 
carefully as it is passed along to the barrels, and the damaged 
berries removed. The berries are now in good condition and ready 
for market. 
