158 OUR COMMON FETJITS. 



established on the margin of any pond even in the most 

 barren waste. All that is necessary is to form round its 

 border a bed of bog-earth, kept in its place by a few boards 

 and stakes, for this kind of soil retains moisture longer 

 than any other, and is so indispensable to the cranberry- 

 plant that, though it will sometimes grow in bog-earth 

 away from any pond, not even dwelling beside a pond can 

 nduce it to thrive unless rooted in bog-earth. A few bushes 

 planted in such a situation will send out runners, which in 

 the course of a few years will spread over the whole bed, 

 and, never requiring any culture or attention,will year after 

 year bring forth an abundant and regular crop of fruit, 

 unaffected by bad weather and unspoiled by insect ravages. 

 Sir Joshua Banks was the first to try this experiment, near 

 a pond in his grounds at Spring Grove, but though the 

 result was eminently successful, it has been very little 

 followed in this country. In New England, however, many 

 low-lying, rank meadows are turned to very profitable ac- 

 count by being thus planted, for 20 feet of laud will yield 

 three or four bushels of fruit annually, the average value 

 being about 1 dol. per bushel (at New York even 3 or 4 

 dols.), while a labourer can gather, with the aid of a 

 " rake," as much as 30 bushels in a day. They grow wild 

 in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Barnstaple, 

 United States, and here the gathering is made an annual 

 festival, a day for it being appointed by the authorities, 

 when the greater part of the population go forth, armed 

 with implements called " cranberry-rakes," to collect the 

 crop, a fixed proportion of which is always made over to 

 the town as a municipal right. 



The generic name of the cranberry, Oxy coccus, is derived 

 from the Greek oxy, sharp, and TcoTckos, a berry, alluding 

 to the acidity of the fruit ; and this genus includes several 

 species, our native English kind being termed palustris, 

 and the common American sort macrocarpus, but they do 

 not differ very strikingly, the chief distinction being that 

 the berries of the latter are larger, while the flavour of 

 ours is mostly preferred. That the American kind are 

 thought inferior may sometimes be due to the damaging in- 

 fluence of the voyage, but is not always so, since that species 



