CRANBERRY 



CRANBERRY 



875 



underlying peat. Where sanding is practised, it is the 

 custom to apply a fresh coat of sand an inch or less in 

 depth every two or three years; this keeps the vines 

 short and close. 



Cuttings for planting are secured by mowing 

 vigorous vines from an old bog with a scythe. These 

 cuttings, preferably not more than 8 or 10 inches long, 

 are thrust diagonally into the surface of the bog from 

 12 to 14 inches apart. Not more 

 than 3 or 4 inches of the top 

 should be exposed, and if the 

 bog is sanded, care should be 

 taken that the cutting extends 

 well into the muck below. As 

 the vines grow they send out 

 runners in all directions, netting 

 the ground completely over. 

 These sometimes grow as much 

 as 6 feet in length and root in 

 the soil at frequent intervals. 

 From the runners grow upright 

 stems which, in time, cover the 

 bog with a solid mat of vegeta- 

 tion. The uprights are prefer- 

 ably not more than 6 inches high 

 but under some soil conditions grow to a foot or more 

 when the fruit is likely to be scanty. From the time 

 of planting, three to five years must pass before the 

 ground is matted over and a crop may be expected. 



The character of the growth of cranberry vines pre- 

 cludes any cultivation in the ordinary sense of the 

 word. The care of the bogs consists in keeping them 

 free from other plants, which is accomplished almost 

 entirely by hand-pulling; the regulation of the irriga- 

 tion water, and preventive and curative measures for 

 the many diseases and insect enemies to which they 

 are subject. 



Fertilizing of cranberries has met with considerable 

 success in increased crops, various brands of commercial 

 fertilizer having been employed. The subject is not 

 well understood, however, and is attracting the atten- 

 tion of many thoughtful growers and their scientific 

 helpers in the state experiment stations. 



The pretty little pinkish white flowers of the cran- 

 berry open during June, when the bogs are not flooded, 

 but the holding of the winter water till May throws the 

 fullest bloom into the early part of July. 



Diseases and insects. 



Spraying with bordeaux mixture is very generally 

 practised to prevent "scald," a fungous disease which 



has been especially 

 injurious to the grow- 

 ers of New Jersey 

 and which was so 

 named because it was 

 long thought to be 

 caused by the scald- 

 ing effect of the hot 

 sun shining on berries 

 wet with dew. As it 

 is seldom possible to 

 run heavy spraying 

 machinery over the 

 bogs, spraying in- 

 volves the use of very 

 long lines of hose or 

 the laying of pipe 

 lines, or both, the 

 spraying of each 



1089. A cranberry bog flooded in winter. 



1090. The flume or outlet at the 

 bottom of a cranberry bog. 



property being a separate engineering problem. 



Insects of many kinds attack the roots, the leaves, 

 the blossoms and the fruit of the cranberry. Knowl- 

 edge of the life history of each of these is necessary for 

 successful warfare against it, and detailed information 

 is best secured from the various bulletins of the 



56 



United States Department of Agriculture and the 

 agricultural experiment stations of New Jersey, Wis- 

 consin and Massachusetts. More varieties of insects 

 may be successfully combated with water than with 

 any other one thing, as already explained. Arsenical 

 poisons are expensive to apply, of indifferent success 

 in destroying insects on the bogs, and they are sus- 

 pected of being an actual poison to the vines. 



Varieties. 



There are now many varieties 

 of cranberries in cultivation, all 

 of them having been selected 

 from wild vines or vines that 

 appeared naturally in cultivated 

 bogs. These varieties vary in 

 shape, color, size, productive- 

 ness, time of ripening and adap- 

 tation to different soils. Some 

 of the forms are shown in Figs. 

 1091-1093. The most generally 

 cultivated are the Early Blacks 

 and the Howes, both of which 

 originated in the Cape Cod dis- 

 trict and which together make 

 about 50 per cent of the berries marketed from all 

 three of the cranberry states. 



The Early Blacks are ready to harvest about the 

 first of September both in Massachusetts and New 

 Jersey, and the last of the Howes are seldom picked 

 before the middle of October. As the pickers advance 

 over a cranberry bog, they pick clean as they go and 

 do not go back for successive relays of ripening berries 

 as with most other small fruits. 



Picking and grading. 



In Massachusetts most 'of the picking is done by a 

 scoop, by which the berries are raked from the vines. 

 When the vines are short, the uprights not tangled, 

 and the picker is experienced, berries can be harvested 

 in this way very rapidly and with very little damage 

 to either fruit or vines. The bogs are kept in good con- 

 dition for "scooping" by pruning every three or four 

 years with a rake the teeth of which are knives placed 

 about 6 inches apart. The scoop (Fig. 1094) is also 

 used to a considerable extent in New Jersey and Wis- 

 consin but in these states a great many berries are 

 still picked by hand. 



Some of the berries, especially in Massachusetts, are 

 cleaned and packed on the bog as they are picked, and 

 sent directly to market, but this immediate packing 

 tends to poor keeping. Most 

 cranberries, after picking, 

 are put in boxes which are 

 packed in well - ventilated 

 storehouses. Here they are 

 kept from a -few days to 

 several months 

 and the cleaning 

 and packing for 

 market is done im- 

 mediately before 

 they are shipped. 



The machine 

 which has been 

 the standard for 

 cleaning cran- 

 berries for many 

 years is provided with a fan to blow away all grass, 

 pieces of vine, dried-up berries or anything of like 

 nature that may have gotten in the berries while 

 being picked. The berries are then allowed to roll 

 down a series of steps; those that are sound are 

 elastic and will bounce like little rubber balls. There 

 are bands of cloth stretched above the steps in such 

 a way that when a berry bounces in the right direc- 



1091. The oblong or 

 bugle-form type of cran- 

 berry. 



