PRACTICAL PAPERS—CRANBERRY CULTIVATION. 195 
i 
increased the price increased also, and for the past five years 
it has averaged at least ten dollars per barrel of three bushels. 
Yetvit is not expected that the present prices will be obtained 
in the future; and it is not desirable that they should be, as 
this would make them an expensive luxury, instead of an ar¬ 
ticle in common use, as they should be. Yet if the price 
should be reduced one half, the business would be largely re¬ 
munerative, and the consumption would be increased im¬ 
mensely. It is quite certain that the future cranberry grower 
will have a more widely extended market than at the present. 
Considering the small amount of land on which the cranberrv 
can be raised, compared with the Mississippi valley and »the 
country west to the Pacific, it would seem that no fears can 
reasonably be entertained as to a demand in the years to come. 
The last year’s crop in this section, as near as can be esti¬ 
mated, will amount to nearly 15,000 barrels, against 11,000 
barrels in 1870. The price has averaged about the same, not¬ 
withstanding the heaviest dealers in the article in Chicago 
were prevented by the great fire from distributing the usual 
annual supply to their customers. Everything considered, it 
is safe to say, that the cranberry business will prove profitable 
to the grower for many years to come. 
