Dennisport, Mar. 2, 1892.
I have used Bradley’s Fertilizers for a number of years on cranberry vines, both old and new, with good and satisfactory results. The fruit will generally be larger and fairer where it is used, and used on young vines will cause them to spread and shade the ground, thus preventing as large a growth of weeds. I cheerfully recommend it to all cranberry growers.
The foreground shows vines set in the spring of 1890; the background on the right new bearing bog, and on the left, a small showing of vines set in spring of 1891.
E. K. CROWELL.
THE BEST BERRY.
There is a wide division of opinion in regard to what is the best berry to grow; the shrewdest growers find that a selection of berries, running from the very early to the very late berry, gives the best returns when a series of years is taken into account.
By common consent the purple-black berry, called “Early Black,” has been the favorite with both growers and consumers, as its handsome, rich coloring made it a good seller, while it is also a very prolific berry. It is a medium-hard berry, and for bogs which are liable to be infested with the fire, fruit, or span worm it seems preferable, as the bog can be kept under water until as late as the first or middle of June, and these berries will then, in an average season, ripen before frost. It is, however, pretty well conceded by many growers that this berry has been of great injury to the business as a whole, since it is one of the poorest of keepers, and, while affording profit for the time to the grower, has been of such loss to the “middleman,” as to render him unduly cautious of Cape Cod berries. This reputation which has attached itself to the Cape crop is wholly unwarranted by a careful and intelligent investigation of the many and various conditions which govern this, the most important feature of the whole business.
The “A. D. Makepeace” berry is the outcome of a berry found by its namesake, the largest grower in this country, and gradually cultivated until it is conceded to be the largest early berry in the market, and as such commands a high price. It is of cherry shape, and rose-tinged purple in coloring. Illustration No. 1 is a fair example of the shape of this berry.
The “James Anthony” is a very good variety of the second early berries, and by some considered among the best keepers of the medium-early berries.