Dec. 189-i.] 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL Js^OTES. 



223 



The Culture of Cranberries. 



The culture of cranberries is an important industry in some 

 of the American States. Massachusetts and New Jersey are its 

 chief centres, though there are some cranberry " meadows " in 

 Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In Massachusetts 

 alone the crop of cranberries in 1891 amounted to 157,000 barrels, 

 valued at 25,000^. Quantities of cranberries are imported into 

 England from America, Russia, and Sweden, and are much 

 esteemed, being utilised in the form of preserved and stewed 

 fruit or in pastry. But the American cranberries are, it is said, 

 better in flavour, size, and quantity than all others. 



The cranberry, Oxycoccus macrocarpon, belongs to a group of 

 the Vaccinacem. It is a small hardy evergreen shrub, bearing 

 a sharp acid fruit whose colour varies from light dull pink to a 

 dark purple. It is indigenous to America, being found in a wild 

 state in boggy laud throughout the northern portions of the 

 United States, in parts of Canada adjacent, as well as in the 

 marshes and glades of the Alleghanies as far south as Virginia 

 and North Carolina, It is also found in South America and in 

 some European countries. 



According to several authorities, the species of cranberry in 

 Britain is Oxy coccus palustris, slightly diflerent in habit from 

 the American species, and its berries are smaller and not of such 

 a crimson hue. 



The cranberry has not been systematically cultivated in 

 Great Britain, but it formerly grew very extensively in marsh 

 districts, notably in Lincolnshire and in Norfolk, also on the 

 borders of Cumberland, and its sale proved profitable to the 

 inhabitants. Cranberries have been cultivated in recent years 

 in England, but only to a small extent. There is a bed at Petworth 

 in Sussex, and some good beds at Ashburnbam, which were estab- 

 lished over 60 years ago. They were formerly fishponds, whose 

 water was drained off and the bottoms covered with brickbats upon 

 which rough peat was laid and fine peat and sand put on this. The 

 beds are arranged so that they can be easily flooded, as it is 

 necessary that the land should be irrigated up to the time of 

 the plants flowering. It has been more than once suggested 

 that as a large quantity of this fruit can be obtained per acre — 

 from 80 to 100 bushels according to Downing in his Fruits 

 and Fruit Trees ofAriierica — it would be desirable to cultivate the 

 American cranberry in this country. Mr. Milne, Withering says 

 in his Botany, reported favourably of experiments made in cran- 

 berry culture to the Horticultural Society, and that cranberries 

 " might be made to grow with little trouble in places and on 

 soils where few other useful plants yet known will grow to 

 advantage." 



The cranberry grows naturally in spots well supplied with 

 moi?ture upon peaty or sandy soil. Any admixture of clay 

 appears to be fatal to its progress, and no other than alluvial soil 

 is suitable for it. On the question of soil for the cultivation of 



