Volume 58 Number 3 Article 17
Year 2004 Month 7
Title: The 'Early Black' Cranberry
Author: C.J. DeMoranville
Abstract:
The American cranberry, Vaccinium
macrocarpon Ait., is a low-growing,
stoloniferous, semi-evergreen perennial
plant native to eastern portions of the United
States and Canada.
Its native range extends
from Newfoundland, south to the higher
elevations of North Carolina, and west to
Minnesota.
Early European settlers found
the cranberry already well known to the
native population who used the fruit
medicinally, as a food flavoring, and as a
dye.
However, it was not until the 19th century
that commercial cultivation of cranberries
began on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Circa
1816, Henry Hall of North Dennis noticed
that wild cranberry plants covered by
blowing sand produced better crops.
Hall
transplanted cranberry sods into the first
cranberry "yards", cultivating the crop by
periodically adding sand to the planting.
Others observed Hall's success and also
planted cranberries into areas receiving sand
drift.
By 1854, the industry had gained
enough importance to be recognized in an
official census conducted by the
Massachusetts Department of Agriculture.
At that time, there were 197 acres of
cultivated cranberry in Barnstable County
(Cape Cod). By 1865, the cranberry acreage
had increased to 1074 (2).
Full text download: APS subscribers
ISHS members & pay-per-view
(PDF 370915 bytes)
Translate:
APS membership administration
ISHS membership administration
