Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-24

making a reputation for Itself potn III
Great Britain and on the continent, lol-
lowing in the footsteps Of American corn.
Last years was the biggest crop ever
gathered in the United States-over 1.ooo,-
900 bushels-and the principal growers
contributed by agreement per cent OF
their product to pay the expenses OF IN
Producing cranberries into England A. }.
Rider of Trenton, N. j.. was sent across
the water for the purpose. On reaching
Liverpool he found In that city only one
dealer In cranberries-a small girl IN tho
market, who said she never ate her wares
herself, because they tasted like medi-
cine" She only sold them to a few Amer
leans.
1t was quickly made evident that in Eng
land only Americans ate cranberr1es. which
to the natives were q delicacy unknown
About 1000 bushels Of them were imported
from the United States annually. Nothing
daunted, the American propagandist went
to the leading hotels and restaurants and
taught the proprietors how to cook the
cranberries which he furnished. They were
at first incredulous, then delighted, and
finally eager to offer the new food to their
customers
Cards appeared at the restaurants read.
ing, American Cranberries Served Today.
AL one popular calling houbc SidhooAAAOS
occurred in five places on the bill OF fare.
The small girl already mentioned SOLD our
her stock Of the fruit faster than she
could renew 1T, and within Few Gays
eight other hucksters on the same aisle In
the market were dealing in cranberries. 1t
was a positive craze.
At Manchester. Dublin. Belfast, Glasgow
and Edinburgh the cranberries were intro
duced In similar fashion, and like results
followed. Cranberries were placed on sale
by the largest fruiterers. However, the de-
mand created by the means described mad
one unwelcome result. Large consign-
ments Of cranberries from Russia were
thrown on the market, causing prices to
drop This was wholly unexpec ted. and
for a time II looked as though such rivalry
would kill the American cranberries. TO
cap the climax. the Russian berries were
sold by INSCRIPTIONS dealers at lower
price under the name of American cram
berries
The ,nkee agent made an investiga-
ton and discovered that the Russian ber-
riss were of an inferior variety, known IN
the United States as hog cranberries."
and not considered fit for food, having q
very bitter and pungent taste. NO time
was lost in making public the cneat
through the newspapers. and by threats OF
prosecution the dealers were forced to re-
move the misleading sign. Within few
days the signs reappeared, with genuine
American cranberries under them, and
sales rapidly increased, while the fraudu-
lent article could scarcely be sold at any
price.
Cases of cranberries accompanied by
recipes were accepted by her majesty the
queen and by the Prince OF Wales. An
important part of the propagandists work
was to teach people how to cook the fruit.
With the cranberry the situation Is the
same as with corn in Europe|gnorance OF
proper methods of cookery stand In the
way of its introduction. Even on the
steamship going over the agent found that
the cook was using metal utensils in the
preparation of the berries. Only porcelain
or enumeled ware ought to be used. be-
cause cranberries contain sulphuric and
other acids, which act on copper, iron or
tin so as to spoil the flavor of the fruit.
On each of the paper bags supplied by
the agents to retailers were printed in
structions for cooking. Every person who
bought pound of fruit had recipes for
preparing IT in a variety of ways. The
cranberry literature distributed in England
has been translated into the Danish lam
gUsge, which answers for Denmark, Nor
way and Sweden and II will be rendered
into French and German. Dealers in Ber-
lin and Paris have expressed a willing
ness to take limited quantities OF the ber-