120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



analysis of the fruit, which is found to contain less than two- 

 tenths of one per cent of organic matter as derived from 

 the soil, all the rest being derived from the air and from 

 water ; science thus showing us how little except air and 

 water, in the laboratory of nature, are needed for productive 

 growth. The leaves of the cranberry vine are oblong, and 

 vary in hue from a bronze to a dark green. The fruit is of 

 a light green color when growing, turning to a lighter green 

 before taking on its rich crimson tint of ripeness. The color 

 of the mature fruit varies, with soil, mode of culture, location 

 and variety of berry, from the light red of our inland bogs 

 to the " black-cap " of the Cape. The dark color has been 

 thought to indicate thorough ripeness, — a mistake that has 

 often had an undue influence in the market in favor of the 

 poorer table berry, and discouraging to the planting of in- 

 land bogs, because the difierence of one dollar or one 

 dollar and fifty cents per barrel is often the difierence be- 

 tween profit and loss. Were this dark berry really the 

 better fruit, it would be well ; but when, instead, the lighter 

 is the finer flavored, the richer, the more juicy, and of 

 brighter color when on the table, then it would seem that 

 inland cultivated berries should be preferred by good house- 

 keepers. The difference between the dark berry of the 

 Cape and the lighter colored inland berry of the improved 

 bog, I will illustrate by the comparison familiar to us farmers 

 between the two varieties of apple — the Roxbury Russet and 

 the Rhode Island Greening : the one drier, with a thicker 

 skin, can be handled more roughly and is the better keeper ; 

 the other, with a thinner skin, more juicy and tender, is 

 easily injured, and decays sooner if injured. I used a few 

 days ago some of the lighter colored berries, picked more 

 than a year since, which were as fresh and finely flavored as 

 if just gathered from the vines. However, the fact remains, 

 the purchaser seldom cares for the difference in flavor, or 

 knows that there is any — a cranberry is a cranberry to him, 

 and nothing more ; so the dark colored fruit will hold its 

 vantage, especially as dealers will always prefer it because 

 it is the better keeper, and consequently there is less danger 

 of decay and loss. 



This diflference is largely due to the soil and culture, rather 



