72 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 402 



annual reports of the New England Cranberry Sales Company. Beginning with 

 1912, Mr. H. S. Griffith, for many years chairman of the Board of Inspectors of 

 that company, regularly included in his report an estimate of the keeping 

 quality of the cranberry crop of his district. These reports are the most reliable 

 source of information on the quality of the various crops, not only because they 

 are in print, which obviates the necessity of trusting to memory, but also because 

 Mr. Griffith was an unusually keen observer and because, as a result of the frequent 

 inspectors' meetings, the reports to a certain extent represent the combined judg- 

 ment of the whole group of inspectors. 



These records form the chief basis of the statements in columns 3 and 4 of 

 Table 3. When a table like this was first prepared, the crop was considered as a 

 whole and only one column was given to keeping quality. After the experience 

 of 1926, however, Mr. Griffith's reports were re-examined and it was found that 

 even as early as 1915 he had sometimes distinguished between the keeping quality 

 of Early Blacks and of Howes. In all subsequent work, therefore, they have been 

 considered separately. 



As a check on these estimates and in order to furnish a more definite basis of 

 comparison for the crop of subsequent years, actual storage tests of samples of 

 unscreened berries from about twenty-five selected bogs in Plymouth County 

 have been made at East Wareham since 1926. The results of these tests are 

 given in Table 1. 



Although the records of condition were taken both on October 15 and on No- 

 vember 15 for all samples, for reasons already given October 15 is considered the 

 important date for Early Blacks and November 15 the important date for Howes 

 and odd varieties. Records in sufficient quantity to be worth averaging are 

 available for Early Blacks for ten years and for eight years for Howes and the 

 odd varieties. (Table 2.) So far as they go, they confirm the more general obser- 

 vations made by the inspectors and indicate that the Early Blacks were relatively 

 poor in 1931 and 1933, and in 1929 and 1930 showed somewhat more loss from 

 decay than in such years as 1926 and 1928. In such a notably poor crop as that 

 of 1931, the Howes in the sample lots showed decidedly more loss from decay on 

 November 15 than in the other vears. 



Table 2. — Average Condition of Storage Lots of Cr.\nberries. 



Number Percentage of Rotten Berries 



Variety of — 



Samples 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932* 1933 1934 1935 



Early Black.... 8 to 10 



Howes 8 to 9 



Odd Varieties. .5 to 6 



Early Black.... 8 to 10 



Howes 8 to 9 



Odd Varieties. .5 to 6 



2.9 



5.4 



4.6 



13.4 11.2 



* These figures do not include the State Bog crop. In 1932 the crop of the State Bog was, for 

 reasons not fully understood, very poor, the percentages of rot running higher than ever before 

 recorded on Cape Cod. The percentages including the State Bog are as follows: 



October 15 November 15 



Early Black 13.2 25.2 



Howes 4.5 13.6 



Odd Varieties 19.3 34.0 



