HOW TO PREPARE A BOG.
TheCranberry bog is usually prepared in late fall, winter, or early spring, when the ground is partially frozen, as it is more easily cleared at this time, and cheaper labor is obtainable.
The first step in preparing the bog is to mow off, with a bush scythe, all the small brush and undergrowth. We are then ready to get rid of the trees. Experience has proved that the cheaper way is to cut the roots of the large trees, and then by means of tackle, in case they do not fall by their own weight, pull them over to the ground. This saves many days’ labor, which would be necessary if the trees were cut down above the ground and the stumps then dug out.
The refuse materials should be gathered into heaps, and, when dried, burned upon the bog; but great care is necessary in burning not to allow the moss and turf, of which the bog is composed, to get on fire; for when once fairly started, it is nearly impossible, except by flowing the bog, to extinguish the flames.
These first steps in clearing the bog must be done in the best possible manner, preferably by day labor, under the direct care of a watchful foreman, as the ultimate success of the Cranberry bog depends very largely upon the thoroughness with which all of the tree and bush roots are removed.
After the surface of the bog has been thoroughly cleaned off, it is cut intosquares, about eighteen inches across, by means of a turf-axe, which is a thin, hatchet-shaped bladed implement, with a stout, hickory handle, about thirty inches long. This axe is utilized for cutting the tough, undergrowing roots, sure to be found just below the surface of the soil.
The usual method is to cut across the bog in parallel lines eighteen inches apart, and again at right angles in parallel lines in the same manner, thus leaving the turf in square blocks about eighteen inches square. Two men with long-handled, four-pronged bog-hooks follow the cutters, pulling over the turf, which, after the ditching is finished, should be chopped up, and so rendered suitable for making the surface as smooth as possible, when the work of final grading is completed.
We are now ready for ditching; the manner and methods necessary to secure the best possible drainage being subject, of course, to such varied conditions as to render it difficult to describe. But if there were but three essential features of special importance, two of them would be drainage.
All of the ditches should be dug with flaring banks, so as to prevent caving in of the sides of the ditch, and thus making constant trouble. A ditch, in any case, around the entire bog is an essential feature in drainage, and to carry-off the cold surface water, as well as a preventive of much difficulty in cultivation, etc.
If the ditches are thoroughly well made they will need but little repairing or cleaning, and here as elsewhere in preparing the bog the most careful attention on the part of the superintendent will prove the cheapest in the end.
After the ditches are completed, the bog must be graded until it is as smooth and level as a lawn. In grading the bog the levels must be run in such a manner that it can be easily flooded with water, since sometimes it may be desirable to do this as expeditiously as possible, and the necessary arrangements to do this should be provided at this time.
North Harwich, Mass., Oct. 19, 1891.I have been in the habit of using Bradley’s Fertilizer on my cranberry bogs for a number of years, and consider it very beneficial. It pushes the new vines along to a bearing condition much earlier than would be the case if left to depend on the natural strength of the soil, and by covering the ground quicker with vines the grass and brush are not so likely to get a start.It also does well on old vines, increasing the crop, and the size and quality of the berry. Last spring, to my sorrow, I neglected to apply this phosphate to my old bog, and on gathering my crop this fall I found I had made a great mistake. Shall use it another year, without fail.BENJ. F. HALL.
North Harwich, Mass., Oct. 19, 1891.
I have been in the habit of using Bradley’s Fertilizer on my cranberry bogs for a number of years, and consider it very beneficial. It pushes the new vines along to a bearing condition much earlier than would be the case if left to depend on the natural strength of the soil, and by covering the ground quicker with vines the grass and brush are not so likely to get a start.
It also does well on old vines, increasing the crop, and the size and quality of the berry. Last spring, to my sorrow, I neglected to apply this phosphate to my old bog, and on gathering my crop this fall I found I had made a great mistake. Shall use it another year, without fail.
BENJ. F. HALL.
Harwichport, Mass., Oct. 19, 1891.I have used Bradley’s Fertilizer for growing cranberries, and find it very beneficial. New vines come to bearing one year earlier by its use, and grass and weeds are crowded out, and do not get the foothold they are apt to where vines grow slowly, and are a long while covering the ground.Cranberry growers in this section are finding it greatly to their interest to use Bradley’s Fertilizer on their bogs, both new and old.About the 1st of June, 1891, I put on 100 pounds of Bradley’s Fertilizer on about 60 rods of late vines, set out 20 years ago. On the other side of the ditch were 60 rods of vines, the same age, both done by the same man; in other words, the same conditions exactly, except the Fertilizer. This year I gathered both pieces. The piece to which I applied 100 pounds of Fertilizer yielded 8 barrels of cranberries, the other, barely 1 barrel.E. B. ALLEN.
Harwichport, Mass., Oct. 19, 1891.
I have used Bradley’s Fertilizer for growing cranberries, and find it very beneficial. New vines come to bearing one year earlier by its use, and grass and weeds are crowded out, and do not get the foothold they are apt to where vines grow slowly, and are a long while covering the ground.
Cranberry growers in this section are finding it greatly to their interest to use Bradley’s Fertilizer on their bogs, both new and old.
About the 1st of June, 1891, I put on 100 pounds of Bradley’s Fertilizer on about 60 rods of late vines, set out 20 years ago. On the other side of the ditch were 60 rods of vines, the same age, both done by the same man; in other words, the same conditions exactly, except the Fertilizer. This year I gathered both pieces. The piece to which I applied 100 pounds of Fertilizer yielded 8 barrels of cranberries, the other, barely 1 barrel.
E. B. ALLEN.