20 



CRANBERRY CULTURE. 



discouragingly low. For instance, about thirty years 

 ago, two well-known merchants of Medford, N. J., in- 

 vested in a lot of good, natural cranberries, with the view 

 of speculation. The price paid was 62 cents per bushel, 

 and yet they lost money by the operation. 



The success of a few cultivators becoming known, 

 others were induced to attempt the business, and as the 

 supply gradually increased, the berries were exposed for 

 sale in new markets, and people who had before been un- 

 acquainted with them were, perhaps, attracted by their 

 fine appearance, and led to give tliem a trial in the famous 

 tart or sauce, — a trial being sufficient to convince even the 

 most skeptical of their excellence, and create a demand 

 for them wherever they were introduced. 



This demand, steadily increasing, even faster than the 

 supply, caused the prices to advance, and as the business 

 became remunerative, growers were multiplied in num- 

 bers, and stimulated to greater exertions. But, notwith- 

 standhig the enormously increased production, the demand 

 has increased still more rapidly, and consequently the 

 price has kept pace with it. 



Boswell, writing for the ^'Public Ledger/' Philadelphia, 

 about twenty years ago, on the cultivation, preservation, 

 and transportation of the cranberry, said : " There is 

 ten times the quantity raised now that there was forty 

 years ago ; but instead of the price being lower than for- 

 merly, it is one hundred per cent higher. Forty years 

 ago, in Boston, which has always been the great depot 

 for this fruit, the price was from 75 cents to $1.00 per 

 bushel, but for a fe w years past the price has ranged from 

 $1.50 to $2.50 per bushel." 



It may safely be said that, wathiu the last ten years, 

 the production has increased at least tenfold, and the 

 price is now one hundred per cent higher than that named 

 by Boswell. In fact, a portion of the crop of 1866 was 

 sold by the growers at $10 per bushel. 



