Part 4

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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.

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.

Some growers prefer, after the bog is planted, to keep the ground wet by damming back the water to within six or eight inches of the surface of the bog, and keeping it here until the vines give signs of having made some growth. The water is then let out of the ditches, and the vines take care of themselves through the ensuing season, unless it happens to be a particularly dry summer. If so, once or twice, through the dryest of the season, the water should be dammed back for a few days, and the vines receive the benefit of the irrigation. They will not need any further care during the first season, unless there is a growth of weeds, which should be effectually destroyed.

A cleanly, well-kept bog is not only a beautiful sight, but is the foundation for large returns in the future; it requires no little care, during the first year or two, on the best of bogs to secure the proper money return, in order that the unavoidable outlay heretofore outlined may be rendered remunerative. Four hundred dollars per acre is no unusual amount to be expended in preparing a bog.

FERTILIZATION.

Until within a few years the Cranberry bog has had to depend upon its own resources for fertilization, as it was popularly supposed that a bog contained all the necessary nutriment to feed the growing crop. Careful investigation by the most successful growers has led them to believe that, in common with every other farm crop, a larger crop of finer quality of fruit can be grown per acre, if a good commercial fertilizer is used upon the Cranberry. They therefore commence with the plant when set out, and scatter a small quantity of fertilizer around each plant in setting, as we have before suggested on page 17; and each year thereafter they sow broadcast over the bog from 200 to 400 pounds of Bradley’s Superphosphate to the acre. The result is that a larger crop of richer-colored berries is secured, which will more successfully withstand handling and shipping. The vines are also so stimulated that the crop ripens much earlier, and very often a saving of hundreds of dollars will be made, through the grower being able to gather the berries early in the season, before the frost comes.

On old bogs, which are partially run out, the influence of a liberal dressing of Bradley’s Superphosphate is very marked, as it gives the vines a fresh supply of needed food, and brings ample returns the first season in largely increased crops of berries.

So marked is this effect, that if any one having a Cranberry bog will fertilize a small section of it for one season, at the rate of 200 to 400 pounds of Bradley’s Phosphate to the acre, he will always use this fertilizer thereafter, as the results will readily prove that it will pay him liberally to do so.

Another reason for fertilization is, that, through a liberal use of Bradley’s Superphosphate, the young plants attain that sturdy growth which enables them to withstand more successfully the attacks of the fire, fruit, and span worm, which flourish best upon weak plants.

The common theory that a fertilizer is simply a stimulant, whose influence is of no permanent benefit, has been proved to be erroneous by the experiments of some of the largest growers, who, after having used Bradley’s Superphosphate, find that not only have they grown enormous crops of the best quality berries, but their bogs are annually in a better condition than their neighbors’ bogs which have not been fertilized, and from which only small or average crops of berries have been secured.

By common consent, therefore, the leading growers are large users of Bradley’s Superphosphate, as they are convinced that its liberal use upon their bogs is repaid to them every season in increased crops of perfect fruit which commands the highest market price.

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SOUTH YARMOUTH, MASS., Oct. 22, 1891.

I have used the Bradley Fertilizer on newly set cranberry vines, and find it causes them to grow and spread more rapidly over a new bog.

JAMES F. SEARS.

CRANBERRY ENEMIES.

One of the greatest enemies to successful Cranberry growing is one that can be easily conquered, but which is oftenest neglected; that is, the weeds and small bushes when they first appear. It is a comparatively easy matter under the more favorable conditions, during the three years before the bog comes to full bearing, to go over it once or twice during each season with a hoe, and clean out every weed and bush, no matter how small and insignificant it make look. But the grower often thinks that this is unnecessary labor, especially as he has put considerable money into the bog, and as yet has had no returns from his investment. If this work is neglected now, when the bog comes to fruiting there will be found, especially among the plants, quite an amount of injurious weeds and small bushes which increase rapidly from year to year, and finally kill out the bog. But if during the first three years they are steadily and systematically cut down, they become so thoroughly eradicated that a little going over the bog every spring will keep it in good condition for ten or fifteen years, with little trouble from either weeds or bushes.

The cultivation of the Cranberry, ever since it has been cultivated for a crop, has been a practical exemplification of the advice of that eminent agriculturist, Horace Greeley, who, for the extermination of the Canadian thistle, recommended its “cultivation,” as then there would come plenty of enemies to accomplish its destruction.

The fire, span, tip, and fruit worms rank in the order named as the most destructive,--the first two in the list blasting in a few hours an almost assured and abundant crop.

The larger growers, after experimenting with perhaps all of the known insecticides, have most generally adopted some form of tobacco preparation, applied in solution in the form of a spray, upon the first indication of the approach of the fire-worm.