ESSEX SOCIETY. 57 



are sometimes hawked about the country, at one dollar a bushel. 

 And what if it sometimes is so ? An increase of the supply will 

 increase the demand, even at an augmentation of the price. 

 Hitherto, apples have filled a large share of the department 

 which rightfully belongs to the cranberry, because, in the coun- 

 try, every family has, or may easily have, an orchard, or at 

 least a tree ; while few, even now, for a moment entertain the 

 idea, that the delicious fruit of which we are speaking, can be 

 raised upon any land fit for an orchard, in far less time than an 

 apple tree possibly can, with the great advantage of being sub- 

 ject to no borer, canker-worm or caterpillar. For these reasons 

 it is, that cranberries are not usually found upon the list of fam- 

 ily articles which must be had : and accordingly they may have 

 often been offered, without finding sale. 



Is the cranberry capable of being transferred from low, wet 

 land, to that which is high and dry ? 



And would it be a profitable crop upon high land? 



These are questions which it is proposed to consider at some 

 length. And as regards the first inquiry, before noticing experi- 

 ments recently made, and which may succeed or may finally 

 fail, it may be well to ascertain what opinions have been en- 

 tertained among the learned on subjects analogous to this. 

 Have any theories ever been advanced among scientific men. 

 irrespective of this question, which would make it jn'obable that 

 any vegetable could be subjected to a transition so violent, as 

 that from wet to dry, and not only survive it, but triumph over 

 it 1 This is material ; because many minds, believing it subver- 

 sive of nature's laws, calmly conclude, that the few cases of 

 supposed success are accidental, out of course, and upon the 

 regular recurrence of which no one could calculate with the 

 slightest safety. 



[Here the manuscript contains quotations at considerable 

 length, from various authorities, to prove, which they do success- 

 fully, that many trees and other plants, which naturally grow 

 only in wet and peaty soils, have been successfully cultivated on 

 high and even dry grounds, and both the quality and produc- 

 tiveness thereby improved ; and the inference legitimately drawn 

 therefrom is, that there is nothing impossible — nay, nothing im- 



