278 



On the Cultivation of the English Cranberry. 



the rest, but not greater ; in 1821 no artificial watering was 

 necessary. The subsoil over which the bed is made is a 

 sandy gravel, therefore not retentive of moisture, which is 

 against the successful cultivation of this plant on dry beds ; 

 but where the soil is naturally moist or damp, with a free air, 

 advantage might be taken of it, and the English Cranberry 

 might be cultivated on it with much success. On a bed in a 

 similar situation, and of the same sort of soil, the American 

 Cranberry, (Oxycoccu Macrocarpus) grows most luxuriantly, 

 but as a valuable paper on the cultivation of that species 

 has been published in the Transactions of the Horticultural 

 Society by Mr. Haelet* I consider it unnecessary to add 

 any thing to his directions and observations, which are plain, 

 and if followed, will be attended with success. 



T have been long convinced that both species may be 

 grown with much advantage in numberless situations in this 

 island, and have been surprised that cottagers and others 

 living on or in the neighbourhood of moors and heaths, 

 covered with soil suitable for their growth, have not been 

 advised to cultivate them for the sake of profit. Accord- 

 ing to Withering's quotation from LiGHTFooT,-f twenty 

 or thirty pounds worth of the berries are sold by the poor 

 people each market day for five or six weeks together, in the 

 town of Langtown, on the borders of Cumberland This 

 is a considerable sum for berries picked up from barren wastes 

 and in a district so thinly inhabited, and it is remarkable that 

 the ready sale for them has not tempted some person to 

 make the trial to supply the market in a more certain and 



* Horticultural Transactions, Vol. IV. page 483. 



t Withering's Syst. Arr. of British Plants, 5th Edition, vol. II. page 462. 



