MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 59 
sery-men from being taxed beyond reason, and driven from the State 
by the stupidity of township assessors or county commissioners. 
Give the people of Minnesota some reason to believe that the 
“Minnesota State Horticultural Society” is not merely a ‘“ posey 
bed,” an *‘ apple stand,” or a nursery-man’s advertising medium. 
CRANBERRY CULTURE IN THE ST. CROIX VALLEY.—REPORT BY SENATOR W. 
H. C. FOLSOM, TAYLOR’S FALLS. 
My experience in cranberry culture is not of such a character as 
to enlighten you from practical cultivation. What I do know is 
gathered principally from the cultivation of the berry in Burnett 
county, Wisconsin, in townships 38 and 39, ranges 17 and 18. My 
attention was called to this locality in 1873. Having heard much of 
the enterprise there, I concluded to visit the cranberry marshes. 
The scene on approaching these marshes, where the native cranberry 
was found, before the white man had commenced to improve, was 
picturesque in the extreme, to those who have a taste for nature’s 
handiwork. There are extensive tracts of land, covering thousands 
of acres, dotted here and there with islands of young pine, and points 
of high-land projecting in various shapes into the marshes. It re- 
minded me of an ocean bay, in a calm, only changing the ocean 
water color to endless green. 
I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman there—Mr. Irving— 
who had spent much time in Massachusetts in the culture of this 
berry. He cheerfully gave me information of much interest in this 
culture. 
There are in these marshes somewhere from one to two townships 
of land, on which cranberries were then growing, or susceptible of 
being improved so that cranberries can be raised thereon. One 
township of land contains 23,040 acres. Three hundred bushels of 
berries have been gathered from the cultivated marshes in Berlin and 
Oshkosh, Wis. Multiplying the number of acres, if you please, by 
one-half this amount and it will astonish you, by showing the mil- 
lions of bushels these great marshes can be made to yield. Then 
estimate this amount at $1.50 or $1 per bushel, and you will find it 
will bring millions of dollars. And that into a country which has 
been considered worthless by most all our people. 
This description is but a small area of the marshes of Minnesota 
and Wisconsin on which this berry is a native. Were we to culti- 
vate on the introduction of this berry into all our marshes, and the 
benefit to be derived, by giving employment to multitudes of men, 
women and children, we would be lost in wonder at the magnitude 
of this future trade. 
The time will soon come when this berry will be shipped to all parts 
of our habitable globe, thereby increasing the demand. Already 
these Wisconsin cranberry cultivators ship thousands of bushels to 
California, New Orleans and eastern cities. The future of this cul- 
ture and the traffic will follow the disappearance of the pine. Never 
failing, save the usual casualties that befall all growing cultivated 
articles that sustain life, this trade will ultimately be of endless 
benefit to this and coming generations. 
