118 ESSAY ON THE CRANBERRY. 



l)elief in the superiority of the American to that of the English, 

 that led Sir Joseph Banks to procure the former for his garden 

 culture ? 



But without anticipating any conjectured market abroad, there is 

 no reason to believe that the home demand can be at present fully 

 met. Let the public but once know that a supply of this delicious 

 berry can be always and easily had, aye and be as easily cultivated 

 as the apple itself, if not more so, and the demand Avould soon outrun 

 the supply. Most families are compelled to rely for half the year up- 

 on apples for sauce and pies, and the pickled cucumber, indigestible 

 and dangerous as it is, and often thrown away as it always ought to 

 be, is retained upon the farmers' table, merely because it is the only 

 thing of the kind known that can be kept through the year ; while 

 the voluptuary adds "Spanish Olives," "Walnut Ketchup" and what 

 not, more indigestible and dangerous still. What an opportunity to 

 bring forward and substantiate the pure acid of the cranberry ! For 

 culinary purposes it must be cheaper. Apples are held to be unfit 

 for pie or sauce till every element of the natural flavor almost is de- 

 stroyed or neutralized by the rose water and the spice. But give to 

 cranberries the quantum sufficit of one single thing, "sweet cane," 

 and they never tire. The amount of acid in a single bushel is not 

 to be overlooked, and the augmented amount especially, when diluted 

 for the taste. When these and other familiar facts are considered, 

 the value and advantage of the fruit in question begins to be felt and 

 known. 



Let as many then as will, go forth, "weeping," if they must, but 

 go forth bearing seed, and I can but think that in due season they 

 will return bringing their sheaves with them. The number of those 

 who will continue to doubt whether tl^e vines will "outlive the first 

 year or two," or who will wait to know whether they will survive the 

 winter without having "their roots saturated in water," will always 

 be so large, that the enterprising will find an open field and fair play. 



Our country consumes eighteen thousand dollars worth of foreign 

 fruit a year ; and of the single spice called pepper, we use a good 

 three million dollars worth a year. With such facts as these before 

 us, can any one for a moment fear an over-supply of the fruit, the 

 cultivation of which it has been the object of this essaj to recommend. 



