CRANBERRY GROWING IN MASSACHUSETTS 



(A Revision of Bulletin 371, 1940) 



By Henry J. Franklin, 

 Research Professor in Charge of the Cranberry Station 



T^HE cranberry of .commerce^ is native to North America only, although a 

 closely related species'^ grows in northern Europe and Asia. That species, 

 however, has such small berries that it is not suitable for cultivation. Our Ameri- 

 can cranberry is grown a little in Holland and England, but extensively only in 

 North America. The fruit is used mainly in the United States and Canada, no 

 large foreign market having been developed. 



Fig. 1. Cranberry Bogs from the Air. 

 The bogs in the foreground look whiter than those in the background because they were partly 

 flooded. 



Commercial cultivation of the cranberry began on Cape Cod and in Middlesex 

 County a hundred years ago. It paid well from the start and has developed so 

 that this fruit is now the leading export crop of the State, bringing in a gross 

 annual return of from $5,000,000 to $16,000,000. The industry here, except for 

 a few small bogs, is confined to Middlesex, Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes, 

 and Nantucket counties, the Plym.outh County crop being more important than 

 the others, with Carver, Plymouth, and Wareham the most productive town- 

 ships. Cranberries are also grown in Wisconsin, in New Jersey, on the coast of 

 Washington and Oregon, in Nova Scotia, and on Long Island, these districts 

 being named in the order of their importance in the industry. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT is made to the Bureau of Plant Industry of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture for the photographs reproduced in Figures 5 and 6. also for Figure 16; to 

 the American Cranberry Exchange for the photographs used in Figures 2. 3, 7, 9C, 30, 31, 34, 35, 

 and 37; to Cranberry Canners, Inc., for the photographs used in Figures 1 and 40; and to the 

 New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station for permission to use Figure 22. 



^ Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait. 



2 The "moss" or "speckled" cranberry (F. Oxycoccos L.) 



