CRANBERRY CULTURE. 

 By Marcus L. Urann, Boston. 



Abstract of lecture delivered before the Society, with stereopticon 

 illustrations, March 10, 1917. 



AYithin a very few months the people of the United States will 

 be considering, as never before, their food supplies. Not only in 

 terms of great producers of grain and large special crops, but the 

 question of food will be brought down more directly to the individ- 

 ual and he will be endeavoring to solve the problem of how he can 

 himself produce some of his foods by utilizing his back yard or 

 other small areas of land which will be open to his cultivation. 

 One of the first questions confronting him is the selection of his 

 crops. It is a rule that we should raise what we can cheaper than 

 we can buy and buy from others what they can produce cheaper 

 than ourselves. Now I presume we all want cranberries. 



First, because of their food value, composed as they are of ele- 

 ments which our body needs and which will be of increasing value 

 the plainer our general diet may become. For instance, tough 

 and other poor quality of meats are rendered tender and more 

 palatable cooked or eaten with cranberries. Then, too, they are 

 an economical food there being no waste in cores or skins and 

 very little labor rec^uired in preparation. We want them, too, 

 because of their medicinal value. We are informed that cran- 

 berries contain predigested acids easily assimilated, acting directly 

 on the red corpuscles in the blood. 



Therefore desiring cranberries, the next question is whether or 

 not we should produce or purchase them, this to be determined by 

 the conditions under which they can successfully be grown. 



The common swamp cranberry, known to botanists by the name 

 of " Vaccinium macrocarjion," is found native in almost every state 

 in the Union and in parts of Canada. All economic plants show a 

 preference for certain soil and climatic conditions and none is more 



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