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This is native in the northern parts of both hemispheres. In England and
on the continents of Europe and Asia, native cranberries are inferior,
in size and quality, to the American. Our own have also been greatly
improved by cultivation. They have become an important article of
commerce, and find a ready sale, at high prices, in all the leading
markets of the country. Their successful cultivation, therefore,
deserves attention, as really as that of other fruits. Mr. B. Eastwood
has written a volume on the subject, which probably contains all the
facts already established, together with many opinions of scientific and
practical cultivators. The work is valuable, but much less so than it
would have been, had the author put into a few pages the important
facts, and left out all speculations and diversities of opinion. The
objection to most of this kind of literature is the intermixture of
facts and valuable suggestions with so much that is not only useless,
but absolutely pernicious, by the confusion it creates. We think the
following directions for the cultivation of the cranberry are complete,
according to our present knowledge:--
_Soil._--It is universally agreed that _beach sand_ is the best. Not
from the beach of the ocean barely, but of lakes, ponds, or rivers.
There is no evidence that any saline quality that may be in sand from
the beach of the sea, is particularly useful. It is the cleanness of the
sand, on which account it is less calculated to promote a growth of
weeds, and allows a free passage of moisture toward the surface. Hence
white sand is preferable, and the cleaner the better. Whoever has a
moist meadow in the soil of which there is considerable sand has a good
place for a cranberry bed. If you have not a sand meadow, select a plat
of ground as moist as any you have, upon which water will not stand
unless you confine it there, and draw on sand to the depth of four or
six inches, having first removed any grass or break-turf, that may be in
danger of coming up as weeds to choke the vines. If you make the ground
mellow below and then put on the sand, you will have a bed that will
give you but little further trouble. Peat soils will do, if you take off
the top and expose to the weather, frosts and rains, one year before
planting. The first year, peat will dry and crack, so as to destroy
young cranberry vines. But after one winter's frost, it becomes
pulverized and will not again bake. Hence it is next to sand for a
cranberry bed.
_Situation._--The shore of a body of water, or of a small pond is best,
if it be not too much exposed to violent action of wind and waves. Land
that retains much moisture within a foot of the surface, but which does
not become stagnant, is very valuable. The bottoms of small ponds that
can be drained off are very good. Any land that can be flowed with water
at pleasure is good. By flooding, the blossoms are kept back till late
spring frosts are gone. Any upland can be prepared as above. But if it
be a very dry soil it must have a liberal supply of water during dry
weather, or success may not be expected.
_Planting._--There are several methods. Sod planting consists in
preparing the land and then cutting out square sods containing vines,
and setting them at the distances apart, you desire. This was the
general method; but it is objectionable, on account of the weeds that
will grow out of the sod and choke the vines. This method is improved by
tearing away the sod, leaving the roots naked, and then planting.
Another method is to cut off a vigorous shoot, and plant the middle of
it, with each end protruding from the soil two or three inches apart.
Roots will come out by all the leaves that are buried, and promote the
springing of many new vines, and thus the early matting of the bed which
is very desirable.
Others take short slips and thrust four or five of them together down
into the soil as they do slips of currant bushes, thus making a hill of
as many plants. And yet another method is, to cut up the vines into
pieces of two or three inches in length, and broad cast them on mellow
soil, and harrow them in as wheat--Others bury the short pieces in
drills. In either case they will soon mat the whole ground, if the land
be not weedy. The best plan for small beds is probably the middle
planting.
Distances apart depend upon your design in cultivating. If your soil is
such that so many weeds will grow as to require cultivating with a
horse, or much hoeing, four feet one way and two the other is the best.
Better have land so well covered with clean sand, that very few weeds
will grow and no cultivation be needed. Then set vines one foot apart
and very soon the whole ground will be perfectly matted and will need
very little care for years. For two or three years pull out the weeds by
hand, and the ground will be covered and need nothing more.
_Varieties._--There are three principal ones of the lowland species. The
bell, the bugle, and the cherry cranberries. These are named from their
shape. Probably the cherry is the best, being the size, shape, and color
of the cultivated red cherries. There has recently been discovered an
upland variety, on the shores of Lake Superior, that bids fair to be as
hardy and productive as the common currant. On all poor, hard, and even
very dry uplands, it does remarkably well. It grows extensively in the
northern part of the British provinces. The fruit is smaller than the
other varieties but is delicious, beautiful in color, and very abundant.
It will probably be one of our great and universal luxuries.
_Healthy and Unhealthy Plants._--By this cultivators denote those that
bear well and those that do not. And yet the unhealthy, or those that
bear the least, are the larger, greener-leaved, and rapid-growing
varieties. It is difficult to describe them so that an unpractised eye
would know them from each other. The best way to be sure of getting the
right kind is to purchase of a man you can trust, or visit the beds when
the fruit is in perfection and witness where the crop is abundant, mark
it, and let it remain until you are ready to plant. This is always best
done in the spring, or from May 15th to June 15th.
_Gathering_--is performed by hand, or with a cranberry-rake.
Hand-picking is best for the vines, but is more expensive. If a rake be
used, it will draw out some small runners and retard the growth of young
vines. But it is such a saving of expense, it had better be used, and
always drawn the same way. The fruit should be cleared of leaves and
decayed berries; and if intended for a near market, be packed dry in
barrels. If to be transported far, put them in small casks, say
half-barrels, with good water. They may thus be carried around the globe
in good condition. To keep well they should not be exposed to fall
frosts, and should not be picked before ripe. A little practice, and at
first on a small scale, may enable American cultivators of the soil,
generally, to have good cranberry beds. Much of the practical part of
this can only be learned by experience. The above suggestions will save
much loss and discouragement.
_Enemies_--are worms that attack the leaves, and another species that
attack the berries. There are only two remedies proposed, viz., fire and
water. If you can flood your beds you will destroy them. If not, take a
time not very dry so as to endanger burning the roots, and burn over
your cranberry-beds, so as to consume all the vines. Next season new
vines will grow up free from worms.