UISTOKY OP CULTIVATION. 21 



This price, however, is unusually high, and was caused 

 by a partial failure in the crop of that season ; it is only 

 mentioned to illustrate how highly the fruit is appreciated 

 where it is best known. 



Although growing naturally in many parts of North 

 America, there are comparatively few localities where 

 cranberries have been cultivated; of these, Cape Cod 

 and West Jersey are the most important. Some attention 

 has been given to their culture in Maine, and also to the 

 improvement of natural bogs in the North- western States. 



The first attempts at cultivating the cranberry in this 

 country were made on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, about 

 the year 1820, and considerable experience and proficiency 

 were gained by growers in that locality before any atten- 

 tion was given to the subject in New Jersey, the State 

 which has since taken the lead of all others in this most 

 valuable production. 



S. B. Phinney says : " Half a century has now elapsed 

 since Captain Henry Hall, of Dennis, in the County of 

 Barnstable, Mass., commenced the cultivation of the cran- 

 berry. His bog, or * cranberry yard,' as he called it, has 

 no year since failed of producing a remunerative crop. 

 For the next thirty years after Mr. Hall commenced, 

 many experiments were made by others, and most of them 

 proved to be failures. The general cultivation does not 

 date back further than the year 1850, yet since that date 

 there have been many failures, find many bogs, recently 

 set, will never yield remunerative crops. By this term, 

 and by successful cultivation,' I mean that the crops, in- 

 cluding the present value of the bogs, have more than 

 repaid the original cost, interest, and incidental expenses 

 of cultivating, picking, and sending to market." 



It was not until about the year 1845 that the first vines 

 were planted in New Jersey ; and for several years the 

 history of the Cape Cod pioneers was repeated in the 

 numerous failures that followed. Although the Jersey- 



