February, ip20 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



Development of the Cranberry Industry in Oregon 



By Wm. E. Schimpff. Secretary of the Oregon Cranberry Growers' Association 



THE English language is recognized 

 as the most complete language in 

 use. It is especiall rich in words 

 to convey various shades of meaning. 

 In spite of this wealth of words, as ap- 

 plied to the cranberry industry the 

 language is singularly incomplete. It 

 does not contain a single distinctive 

 word that can be used to designate a 

 modern improved cranberry planting. 

 The term bog is used by some to so des- 

 ignate a cultivated cranberry planting, 

 others speak of the same thing as a 

 marsh. Neither of these words does 

 the planting justice, for from these 

 words in their common acceptation we 

 would infer, did we not know better, 

 tV.at either a swamp, or a quagmire, or 

 some other kind of a wilderness was 

 referred to. Such however is not at all 

 the case, as a modern cranberry bog is 

 more like the well kept lawn in a beau- 

 tiful park. II is the direct opposite of 

 a quagmire. 



Were we to look for the reason, we 

 would find that cranberry growing as 

 a commerci;d proposition is compara- 

 tively new, and was started a long time 

 after the promiscuous coining of words 

 for the language was in vogue. Inas- 

 much as the industry had its beginnings 

 in the United States, an English speak- 

 ing country, it was not possible to bor- 

 row the proper word from a foreign 

 language, because none existed, there 

 being no cranberry industry in any 

 country other than our own. 



Then again, the history of agriculture 

 and horticulture of the world is con- 

 nected solely with alkaline soils. The 

 cranberry being the first cultivated 

 product of an acid soil to make its bow 

 to the world commercially. Hence 

 there was no opportunity for the cran- 

 berry industry to borrow any terms 

 from allied industries. It is the pioneer 

 of all horticultural efforts with acid 

 soils. It is unique among the agricul- 

 tural pursuits of man. 



The cranberry is distinctively an 

 American fruit. While varieties of cran- 

 berries are found both in Europe and 

 Asia, these are of the small species, and 

 are not readily adaptable to commercial 

 uses. These berries are always popu- 

 lar in the particular district in which 

 they grow. The fruit is gathered from 

 the wild marshes by the people who 

 live in the vicinity of them, but there 

 is no real commercial activity in the 

 wild cranberries of these countries. 

 Here in this country alone is found 

 the large species, which today has be- 

 come a most important commercial 

 product. No patriotic American family 

 would consider a Thanksgiving or a 

 Christmas dinner complete without 

 having cranberries served on that festal 

 occasion. 



The Pilgrim fathers recognized the 

 merits of the cranberry and made use 

 of them immediately upon their reach- 

 ing this country. It was from the Massa- 

 chusetts Indians that the Pilgrims learn- 

 ed the art of making sugar from the sap 



of the native maple, and with this as a 

 sweetener cranberries promptly found 

 a place on the table of these hardy pio- 

 neers. The Pilgrims found their 

 Thanksgiving dinner in the country in 

 which they had selected as their home, 

 for not only did cranberries abound 

 there, but wild turkeys as well. This 

 ideal combination has persisted to this 

 day, and it is doubtful whether a com- 

 bination can be found that is so fitting- 

 ly appropriate and so typically Amer- 

 ican as well. 



From the limited use to which cran- 

 berries were put by the residents of the 

 Massachusetts colony, an industry in a 

 small way sprang up. Shipments of 

 cranberries were made to nearby cities 

 and were readily consumed. It was not 

 imtil the beginning of the last century 

 that the industry began its real march 

 of progress. Massachusetts was the pio- 

 neer state. Other states of the union 

 took up the challenge, and the cran- 

 berry was taken seriously. Today Cape 

 Cod is the ranking cranberry growing 

 district of the United States, New Jersey 

 comes next, following New Jersey 

 comes Wisconsin, and now comes the 

 Pacific Coast modestly claiming fourth 

 place. 



Contrary to the general belief, the 

 cranberry industry is not any new un- 

 dertaking here. Some thirty-five years 

 ago H. D. McFarlin, a Cape Cod cran- 

 berry grower, and the originator of the 

 variety which bears his name, came to 

 the Pacific Coast and located in Coos 

 County, where he set out a five-acre 

 tract of cranberries, and from the crops 

 raised on this tract he made his living. 

 McFarlin lived to a ripe old age. His 

 marsh is still one of the best producing 

 cranberry bogs on the Coast. About this 

 time A. Chabot undertook the setting 

 out of a tract of about fifty acres in Pa- 

 cific County, Washington. This location 

 is just north of the Columbia River at 

 its mouth. Unfortunately Chabot died 

 before the tract was completely set out, 



and while today the marsh still bears 

 fruit, it is in a poor condition as com- 

 pared with the well kept McFarlin bog 

 at Coos Bay. 



Cranberry culture was next under- 

 taken in a small way on the Ilwaco 

 Peninsula, and almost invariably the 

 efforts of the growers met with won- 

 derful success. Crops of 100 barrels to 

 the acre were common. The wonder- 

 ful climate of this section seemed to 

 particularly favor the harvesting of 

 bumper crops year after year. The 

 greatest factor in this regularity of big 

 crops being without question immunity 

 from frost during the growing and har- 

 vesting season. The first large under- 

 taking in this district was the setting 

 out of eighty acres at Seaview, Wash- 

 ington, in 1910. This is still the largest 

 tract of improved cranberry land on 

 the Pacific Coast. About this same time 

 H. M. Williams was attracted to the Pa- 

 cific Coast by reason of the wonderful 

 yields made in this section. Williams 

 being an old time Cape Cod cranberry 

 grower at once selected the mouth of 

 the Columbia as his field for operation. 

 His experience in the industry con- 

 vinced him of the wonderful possibili- 

 ties of the industry in this section. 



Williams undertook the setting out 

 of a tract of some two hundred acres, 

 and while this tract was coming into 

 bearing, he made a very careful and 

 thorough study of cranberry by-prod- 

 ucts. Today in addition to owning one 

 of the finest cranberry bogs on the 

 coast, Williams is also engaged in the 

 manufacture of cranberry juice, cran- 

 berry syrup, cranberry jam, and other 

 similar products at his plant, the Cran- 

 moor Manufacturing Company in Port- 

 land. The fame of Cranmoor products 

 has already been well established. 



For a long time after this develop- 

 ment had begun in her sister state of 

 Washington, Oregon, with characteris- 

 tic deliberateness, made no eff"ort at the 

 development of its similar land in Clat- 



Cranberry bog at Allendale, Oregon, being put in condition for planting. This view shows how 

 the turf is scalped down to the peat, which is then sanded. 



