Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 edition. Excerpt: ... CORRESiPONlDE DEGREESCE. 'LETTER I. Rev. B. Eastwood: --Your letter, asking questions in regard to planting and raising cranberries, is now before me, and should have had an earlier reply but for my absence from home. 1. The location I chose was peat swamp, thickly grown with what are called whortleberry bushes, and other wild shrubs. I cleared the bushes and turf clean to the peat. If any turf is left, rushes and other wild stuff will get in. Planted the vines in the fall. If planted in the spring on peat they would suffer from the drought of summer, and very likely many of them would die. Peat bottom is very wet and muddy in the spring, and bad for setting the vines; while in the fall the surface of the ground is dry, and the process is performed comparatively easy. 2. I flood mine, otherwise they would be very likely to be thrown out of the ground by the frost, particularly the first year, and perhaps the second. A friend of mine cleared a peat swamp the same year I did, but could not flow it in consequence of its location, the whole of his vines were thrown out, and had, of course, * to be reset in the spring. Last year, the heavy fall rains flooded it, ' and they have since done first rate. I prefer fall planting, particularly on peat, as the flooding in winter settles the soil round the roots; and in spring as soon as the water is let off, say about the middle of April, the vines set at once to growing rapidly; very much faster, and come into bearing sooner on peat bottom than any other. I set my vines in the fall, say in August and September. The following autumn I only had a bushel or two; the next year, about twelve bushels; and last, the third year, seventy-three bushels of the very finest quality of fruit, and I look for a l
