26 CAPE COD CRANBEREIES. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 VARIETIES OF THE CRANBERRY. 



The most desirable variety of cranberry to plant is the 

 "Early Black." This is a very prolific and sure bearer, 

 and the vines are not such rank growers as any of the 

 other varieties. One advantage possessed by the " Early 

 Black" over all others is, that a bog infested with worms, 

 if found necessary, can be kept flowed until the fifteenth 

 of June, and the berries will still have time to ripen by 

 ths fifteenth of September. As intimated, the vine is of 

 low growth, and the berries can be easier gathered. The 

 " Early Black" is shown in the frontispiece, which was 

 engraved from a photograph of the exact size, taken from 

 some unusually fine specimens grown by the author. 



Another very good variety is the " Second Early," 

 which ripens about ten days after the "Early Black." 



There are other varieties which bear still larger berries, 

 but they do not keep well. Among these may be men- 

 tioned the "Macfarlane," a. large berry, but: it ripens too 

 late, and must be picked green. This variety last season 

 did not bring so much by one dollar per barrel as the 

 "Early Black," which, with the "Second Early," are 

 the only varieties that I consider it desirable to plant. I 

 say this with great positiveness, as the result of long ex- 

 perience. A white frost will not seriously injure the 

 "Early Black" cranberry, because the fruit is so nearly 

 ripe before the frost appears that it will go through com- 

 paratively unharmed, where a later variety, being green, 

 would be nearly destroyed if similarly exposed. The loss 

 to the " Early Black," when nearly ripened and high col- 

 ored, would be about one bushel in five hundred, whereas 

 a green berry, under like conditions, would be ruined to 

 the extent of three-quarters of the crop. Other varieties 

 grown on the Cape, which I have not before mentioned, 



