20 FIRST GROWERS. 



cause he cannot make the soil yield as his capricious 

 mind desires, he is too apt to abandon the plough and 

 the spade, making the obstacles that lie in his path 

 the reason of his quitting his new profession. The 

 difficulties lie not so much in the soil, as they do in 

 himself The soil is ready to give its increase to those 

 who know how to call it forth, while to such as do 

 not, it withholds a portion of its strength. This has 

 been the case with some of the early growers of the 

 famous cranberry. For want of knowledge, and ex- 

 perience their plants suffered ; some running to vines, 

 others yielding in such small quantities, that they were 

 discouraged, and abandoned the undertaking as one 

 that would not pay. 



The cranberry vine, in its wild condition, does not 

 seem to offer much temptation to a thrifty farmer, be- 

 cause it appears such a stunted, barren thing, that few 

 would imagine it could be turned to profitable account. 

 He must have been a sagacious man, and bold withal, 

 who saw that he could make the cranberry an article 

 of profitable commerce; and determined upon so 

 doing. To rescue this vine from the bogs and 

 swamps was in former times no small undertaking ; 

 but now the difficulties are fewer, from the fact that 

 farmers have the experience of the first cultivators to 

 fall back upon. In Dennis, Mass., one of the largest 

 and most successful cranberry localities, perhaps, to be 



