The six varieties mentioned are the most popular grown. Some others
may have a local reputation, which time and attention will bring into
favorable notice. Local conditions have much to do, however, with
qualities in all cases.
* * * * *
HARWICHPORT, MASS., Oct. 20, 1891.
I have used Bradley’s Fertilizer for a number of years on
cranberries, both on newly set vines and old vines. I apply it
broadcast, and I find it pays well. I can recommend it to be a good
investment, causing more and larger fruit.
WATSON B. KELLEY.
THE PLANTING.
The Cranberry is propagated, through the means of vines which are
procured from old bogs; they are cut or mowed off, preferably from
vines not more than three or four years old. In sorting these
cuttings, care should be taken to remove all the dead wood, and only
the bright, clean cuttings used for planting. Most growers estimate
five barrels of cuttings to the acre of bog, as they use from four
to six cuttings in each setting. Some growers prefer taking runners
twenty to thirty inches in length, and doubling them over at time of
planting; but the former seems to be the generally adopted method.
The usual method of planting is by using a “dibble,” or
setting-blade, made from hard wood, although one of the shrewdest
growers has recently adopted an implement consisting of an iron
blade, with a cross-piece handle of wood. He claims that this is
far preferable to any wooden instrument, and always readily presses
through the sand, although it is not sharp enough to cut the vines.
In planting, a bunch of four or six runners is placed upon the sand
at every intersecting corner. This bunch is held in the left hand of
the planter, while with his right hand he presses them into the sand
by means of the “dibble,” so that they will reach through to the soil
beneath, and when planted will not come above the surface more than
two inches. The accompanying sketch shows the method of planting.
[Illustration:
A A is the main ditch encircling the bog.
B B is the central ditch.
C C are the cross-ditches draining into main and central ditches.
D D are the lines made by the marker.
E E show points at which plants are set.
]
About two weeks after the cuttings are set, a small handful of
Bradley’s Superphosphate should be scattered around each bunch of
cuttings, as this will cause them to grow with great vigor, and so
stimulate their growth that few if any of the cuttings will die;
sometimes not one in a hundred will fail to make a flourishing set.
It is a little more work, but advisable, to put the fertilizer in the
hill, just under the sand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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