56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



covering of sand. This must be regarded as a remarkable 

 yield ; and when the quality of the fruit is such as to command 

 a ready sale at from nine to eleven dollars a barrel, which was 

 offered for them the past season, this crop must be acknowl- 

 edged to be very profitable. 



Loudon remarks, that Sir Joseph Banks, after having import- 

 ed the American Cranberry into England, raised, in 1831, three 

 and a half bushels on a piece of land eighteen feet square. 

 This is at the rate of about four hundred and sixty bushels to 

 the acre. 



It is probable, that for several years in succession, the aver- 

 age yield throughout the State would not be more than a hun- 

 dred bushels per acre, if it were so great ; being some years 

 much more than that, and others much less, the number of bush- 

 els varying according to the accidents of frosts and winter. 



The market value of this fruit will also be different in differ- 

 ent seasons. In 1852, four dollars a bushel, for cultivated 

 cranberries, were very readily obtained. During the past sea- 

 son, the price has ranged from two to four dollars a bushel, 

 according to the quality ; raising and falling, also, to some ex- 

 tent, according to the demand and the supply in the market. 



The demand is rapidly increasing, and there can be little 

 doubt that it will continue to increase as the superior quality 

 of the cranberry, in some sections of this State, becomes better 

 known. And if, owing to any circumstances, as competition from 

 abroad, the value should fall to one dollar per bushel, it would 

 still be a profitable and desirable product, especially when it is 

 left to occupy its favorite barren and otherwise unproductive 

 swamps and dead sands. There are few crops which, with the 

 same amount of labor, will make so good a return. 



Varieties. — There are but two species of the cranberry, prop- 

 erly so called, which are of much practical value, as has been 

 already intimated in speaking of the natural history of this plant ; 

 yet of each species there may be several varieties, more or less 

 permanent, according to the circumstances and manner in which 

 they were produced, just as there are varieties of the apple 

 produced by the accidents of cultivation, and which are not 

 permanent ; as, for example, if we plant the seeds of any im- 

 proved and cultivated variety, like the Baldwin, we cannot 



