CROPS AND PRICES. 



19 



territory. Probably no fruit is more influenced by local fea- 

 tures of situation and climate than the strawberry, and it is 

 usually unsafe to make any general statement as to yields. 

 The Fruit Grower's Journal makes the following comment upon 

 the crop at Cobden, Illinois : "A hundred and twenty-five car- 

 loads of strawberries at this place last year, if recollection is 

 not at fault, have dwindled down to less than twenty-five car- 

 loads this year. A shrinkage of a hundred carloads in one 

 year at one place is something unheard of before since straw- 

 berries were grown in the West. The setting of new beds has 

 been light throughout the West, with the exception of a very 

 few sections. It is pretty safe to predict that the general crop 

 of strawberries in the Mississippi valley, both north and south, 

 will be a comparatively small one next year, regardless of 

 whether the season is favorable or otherwise. It seems safe to 

 say that the acreage to be harvested from next season in ten or 

 twelve Western and Southern States will not be over sixty per 

 cent, of the acreage three years ago. The low prices for ber- 

 ries that have prevailed for a few years past have had the 

 effect of discouraging growers, and many have gone out of the 

 business, others have materially reduced their acreage, and all, 

 or nearly all, have given less attention to cultivation. With 

 the prospect for a small crop and good prices next year, the 

 best possible cultivation ought to be the rule this year." 



Cranberries. — The cranberry crop has been large, as the 

 following comparative figures will show : 





Bu. 1890. 



Bu. 1891. 



Bu. 1892. 



Bu. 1893. 



New England. . . 



New Jersey 



Wisconsin, etc. . 



374,000 

 150,000 

 275,000 



480,000 

 244,000 

 40,000 



375,000 

 160,000 

 65,000 



425,000 

 275,000 

 100,000 



Total 



799,000 



764,000 



600,000 



800,000 



The Cranberry Abroad. — One of the most noteworthy fruit 

 enterprises of recent years is the successful attempt to popu- 

 larize the cranberry in the English markets, the preliminary 

 arrangements for which w r ere fully discussed in the previous 

 volume.* In co-operation with the Fruit Growers' Trade Com- 

 pany, an organization chartered under the laws of New Jersey, 

 the cranberry growers of the East entered upon a campaign of 

 education of fruit consumers in England. Some 300,000 bush- 

 els of fruit were pledged to the enterprise in case it should be 

 needed, and A. J. Rider, of Trenton, N. J., Secretary of the 

 American Cranberry Growers' Association, was sent to Eng- 

 land this year. By energy and tact he succeeded in interesting 

 hotels and other large consumers of Great Britain in the fruit, 



* Annals for 1892, 28, 



