AN ESSAY 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE CRANBERRY, 



BY DAVID CHOATE. 



Although Cranberries have grown upon the wild vines in Barn- 

 stable County so long, that, in the language of the law, the mem- 

 ory of man runneth not to the contrary, the cultivation of this deli- 

 cious fruit opens a neiv field of enterprise to the Agriculturist. The 

 names, it is true, of a few individuals in Dennis and Yarmouth, 

 who are said to have paid attention to the subject some twenty years 

 ago, are given in the Agricultural papers ; but probably the number 

 was small indeed. The early volumes of the New England Farmer, 

 even when conducted by the far reaching Fessenden, appear to be 

 silent upon the subject. The word Cranberry, whether relating to 

 the cultivated or wild kind, does not occur in Varlo's Husbandry, 

 published in 1785, nor in Deane's New England Farmer, in 1795 ; 

 neither is it to be found in Nicholson's Farmer's Assistant, a valuable 

 work published as late as 1820. Other acids were substituted for 

 the table, and cranberries have not unfrequently been a drug in the 

 market at a dollar or even fifty cents a bushel. Indeed, of so little 

 consequence is the culture of this fruit, considered ever since, that 

 town Assessors, in reporting full statements of fruits and other escu- 

 lent vegetables, agreeably to an order of the Legislature, though 

 they can sometimes find room for even the diminutive and short 

 "whortleberry," and are known actually to have returned "ten 

 pounds of hops," as indication of the industry of the town, find no 

 room for Cranberries ; and it does not appear from the returns that 

 more than 125 bushels have been groAvn in the entire Common- 

 wealth. And this withholding of information on the part of those 

 who are able to furnish it, presents not a greater obstacle in furnish- 

 ing out a chapter on the subject, than the singular conflict of opin- 

 ions among those who do speak and write. Let any one sit down to 

 the purpose of preparing himself to cultivate cranberries, especially 

 upon high land, shaping his plans according to the newspaper arti- 

 cles upon the subject, as they have appeared for a few years past, 

 and he will probably find the whole subject appearing much as Dr. 

 Johnson found the English language, when he took his first survey 

 of it, "copious without order, and energetic without rules." Choice 



