166 SIXTP]ENTH BIENNIAL REPORT 



To the rule that berries tlirive better in Oregon tlian elsewhere, the cranberry 

 is no exception. Records of 100 barreis to the acre are not uncommou in the 

 region of the mouth of the Columbia River, and crops of greater figures than this 

 had been picked from marshes. Last year at the Dellmoor Bog, Clatsop County, 

 one acre of marsh yielded 135 barreis of cranberries. The best record made for 

 Oregon of which we have any knowledge was made at the McFarlin marsh at Coos 

 Bay in 1908, when his five-acre tract yielded a crop of 1.000 barreis. One small 

 patch of berries that seem to be bearing a particularly heavy crop was measured 

 off, and the number of boxes picked from the same counted. This piece measured 

 10x16 feet, and its yield was an even six lioxes. Had the crop lieen uniformly as 

 large over an entire acre as over the small piece, we would have had a total of 

 1,633 boxes for an acre ; or, reduced to barreis, 544 barreis. While It is hardly to 

 be expected that this record could be maintained for one acre, when one remem- 

 bers that a barrel of cranberries weiglis 100 pounds, we can see that a yield of 

 100 barreis per acre means a crop weighing five tons. This, we must, admit, is 

 some crop in avoirdupois. Even a potato patch would be proud of it. 



WTiile there are cranberry experiment stations in several of the states, it is a 

 fact that can hardly be disputed that there is still much to be learned about the 

 cranberry. This little fruit is so entirely different in almost every particular 

 that the fruit grower who visits a cranberry bog for the first time Is impressed 

 with the strangeness of the whole atmosphere al)out a cranberry liog. All of our 

 agricultural and horticultural knowledge has come from plants which are grown 

 on alkaline soils, and while a general knowledge of horticulture would be of some 

 benefit to a horticulturist should he l)e transferred to another line of horticulture 

 from that in which he is engaged. we would have to qualify this Statement by 

 saying that he would readily adapt himself to other lines of horticulture, unless 

 he engaged in cranberry culture; when that fact would be impressed upon him 

 every day, that here is a line of horticulture which is really entirely different. 

 The very fact that it is grown in an acid soil makes its study, while fascinating 

 in the extreme, a most difficult one. It would seem almost as though we are 

 dealing with a plant belonging to some bygone age of geology. It interests us 

 much as the study of life in the middle ages interests a student of history, or a 

 journey through China, the traveler. It seems to be at the very extreme of all 

 that we know about the ordinary fruits of commerce, just as life in the middle 

 ages or in China today seems to us to be quite impossible to us in America. 



Commercially, the cranberry is far from being insignificant. The production 

 in the United States being between 500.000 and 600.000 barreis annually. Reduced 

 to a per capita consumption, this is Init one pint per capita. There is no question 

 but that this can easily lie increased. so the prospective cranberry grower need 

 have no fear of an overproduction for many years to come. In fact. the increase 

 in production of cranberries in the United States is hardly keeping pace with the 

 increase in population. Wisconsin was at one time the greatest cranberry pro- 

 ducing State in the Union ; today, it ranks third, being outranked by Massachu- 

 setts and New Jersey. You can readily grasp the possibilities of the industry on 

 the Pacific Coast. Today, we are unalile to supply the needs of the Coast, and with 

 increased production, it is more than likely that increased consumption will keep 

 pace with production, and we shall hardly be able to take care of more than the 

 needs of the Pacific Coast's growing population. 



The Pacific Coast seems to be especially favored in having a mild climate 

 combined with a generous rainfall. Next in importance to climate is sand and 

 \j:ater. Sand is used in modern construction methods on all clean-culture bogs. 

 Drainage is a very important essential. Here in Clatsop County, proper drainage, 

 was created at the time of the construction of Cullably Ditch. The waters of 

 CuUaby Lake furnish an unlimited supply of water for the needs of the cranberry 

 grower, whenever he feels that he wants to use it. A pumping plant capable of 

 pumping 5,000 gallons of water per minute on the marsh has been installed by 



