14 THE CllANBERRY. 



or the cranberry sauce, without which a thanksgiving 

 turkey is now considered shorn of half its glory. 



These cranberries, however, Avere wild, and of an 

 austere flavor, just as the potatoes which Sir Walter 

 Ealeigh first discovered and carried with him to Eng- 

 land were but the puny progenitors of the large and 

 mealy affau's which now, as Chenangoes, Irish, or 

 under other specific names, appear daily on every table. 



It is not positiveh^ known from what jDarticular 

 country the cranberry originally came. Most pro- 

 bably, like many other fruits and plants, it is indi- 

 genous to many soils. One thing is certain, that in 

 various parts of America, both North and South, it 

 exists in a wild state, in various parts, in great profu- 

 sion, and it is not unreasonable to suppose, that there 

 are at this moment uncountable acres in this country 

 w^here it abounds unheeded, and only allowed to run 

 w^aste because the value of the berries is not knovrn. 

 On many of the vast steppes of Eussia wild cranberries 

 abound, and even amid the wastes of Siberia it is oc- 

 casionally to be met with. Indeed, the Eussian cran- 

 berries proved for a long tune to be no inconsiderable 

 portion of the exports of that country, and even until 

 the breaking out of the Eastern War, there were to be 

 seen among bales of hides, hogsheads of tallow, bundles 

 of bristles, and bales of hemp, certain quaint-looking 

 earthen jars, which contained cranberries for the use 



