1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 125 



To illustrate : the frost that was so destructive to the crop 

 this past fall, September 6, would have had little or no 

 effect had it occurred September 20, or 15 even, — the 

 ripened berries would have withstood the same degree of 

 cold without harm. 



Next, insect pests. The cranberry grower soon learns 

 that his culture is not exempt from insect enemies, the mil- 

 ler and its result — the fire-fang, the fruit-worm, the cricket 

 and the grasshopper — each comes in its season to add to 

 your care, and to demand your immediate attention to save 

 the crop. The unfailing remedy is water, best applied when 

 wind and current will unite to waft all insects safely over the 

 dam as you let the water off; for the insect pests that are 

 carried over the dam never come back to trouble you again. 

 It has been thought that a decoction of tobacco sprinkled 

 over the vines will stay the ravages of the fire-worm, but I 

 did not find it efiicient in my experiments with it the past 

 season. If this shall succeed, or if the remedy can be found 

 that shall destroy the miller, and consequently the fire-fang, 

 on meadows that have not the benefit of water, it will be of 

 incalculable value to the many growers who are obliged to 

 stand by and see the promise of a golden harvest vanish be- 

 fore their eyes, with no power to stay or to save. 



The picking is done by hand, costing from forty to sixty 

 cents per bushel, and a good, smart picker will earn from a 

 dollar and a half to two dollars per day, while the average 

 picker will make from one dollar to a dollar and a half, the 

 day being about eight hours long. There is no more beauti- 

 ful crop raised than the cranberry. The bud and the blos- 

 som are "a thing of beauty," and the well-cultivated bog 

 is, from about June 15 to the close of the season, very 

 attractive and enticing, but most so as the fruit approaches 

 maturity, taking on its crimson tint, and hanging from its 

 little pendant stems, one berry above another crowding for 

 the sunlight and the air and the heat, as though hastening to 

 mature itself before the coming of the frost. 



The question now to be settled is the final one, and the 

 important one of profit and loss. 



As we have seen, the cranberry is an American plant. It 

 has not taken root in other countries, nor has the fruit been 



