STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 445 



expensive, and onions do not keep as well as when the tops are pulled 

 off. After the onions have remained in rows for four or five days and 

 are dry, they should be stored under cover until freezing weather 

 begins, and then put in the cellar, and they will keep perfectly sound 

 until the next June, if they have been perfectly cared for. I have 

 kept white onions without a sprout until spring. 



Mr Lory, of Isanti county, by request furnishes a paper on the 

 cranberry. 



CRANBERRY CULTURE. 



By H. A. Lory, Maple Ridge. 



What little information I have gained on the cultivation of cran- 

 berries has cost me rather dearly, but is gathered from an experience 

 extending over a number of years. It may not be amiss to mention 

 some of these incidents of this experience, in this branch of fruit 

 raising. 



I was brought up in Schohaire county. New York; resided in Wis- 

 consin eleven years, and since November, 1875, in Minnesota. I owned 

 five different marshes in Wisconsin, but none of them proving satis- 

 factory, I spent more or less time during a period of three years in 

 securing a better location for conducting the cranberry business; have 

 traveled thousands of miles, crossing the country by the use of maps 

 and charts, and a surveyor's compass. 



In Wisconsin I met an old Indian chief possessed with more than 

 usual intelligence, who in answer to my inquiry, said I should not be 

 discouraged in looking for a desirable marsh, as it would be found by 

 diligent search. It should be stated that while there are good marshes, 

 there are many contingencies that enter into the question of success 

 or failure, such as the character of the soil, climate, stage of develop- 

 ment of the marsh, its capacity for the growth and perfection of ber- 

 ries, etc. A marsh may be entirely unsuitable for cultivation, or it 

 may have been well suited for development for thousands of years. 



A marsh may have the required elements to mature sound, healthy 

 vines and fruit. But a good marsh may change suddenl}' altogether, 

 the soil becoming fermented, sour and poisoned from a change of 

 temperature, from dams, ditches, etc., and thus the best stage may 

 have passed by never to return. On the other hand, its best condition 



