REPORT OF CRANBERRY SUBSTATION FOR 1915. 45 



approval : If any bog that does not yield an average annual crop of more 

 than 50 barrels to the acre fails completely to produce a crop one j^ear 

 (the vines being uninjured), it will, if it is properly cared for and meets 

 with no accidents (such as frost, fire, hail or excessive insect injury), 

 yield the following j^ear at double its average annual rate of production. 

 If this assertion is correct, it goes without question that the plan of cropping 

 every other year may be adopted without fear of reducing the average 

 yearly production of a bog. On the other hand, the writer proposes to 

 show how an actual increase in production might result from such a 

 change. 



If the plan of cropping every other year were adopted, it would probably 

 be carried out in somewhat different ways on different classes of bogs. 

 In any case, it would call for the deliberate prevention of the development 

 of a crop, in some way, by the management of the flowage, every other 

 year. For bogs abundantly su'p'plied with water for reflowage the writer 

 suggests the following program : — 



Begin by resanding the bog some fall after it has produced a heavy 

 crop. This will reduce the tip worm infestation for the following season 

 to a minimum, with the result that, barring accident, a good bud forma- 

 tion will be assured. Hold the winter flowage the following spring until 

 the 20th of May, thus reducing to a minimum the fruit worm infestation 

 already on the bog. Then reflow in June to destroy the first brood of the 

 black-head fire-worm, and again in July to kill out whatever there may be 

 of a scattering second brood. Reflow in full bloom for as long a time 

 as may be necessary to destroy the prospective crop, and, finally, reflow 

 for two or three days some time in August to destroy whatever girdler 

 worms may be at work. 



Treated in this way, the bog should be practically entirely free from 

 insect enemies when it is flooded for the winter. It should be free from 

 the fruit worm as well as from the other important pests, for the worms 

 of the previous year will have been drowned out by the late holding of 

 the winter flowage, and whatever subsequent infestation may have come 

 from the upland will have perished or gone elsewhere because of the lack 

 of food on the bog. In addition to being free from insects, the bog should 

 have a maximum bud development for the following year, as the vines, 

 not having been called upon to produce a crop, will be full of strength, and 

 the tips will have had no chance to be injured to any extent by either the 

 fire-worm or the tip worm. Moreover, the good condition of the vines will 

 not have been impaired by the disturbance incident either to the picking 

 of a crop or to resanding. The bog should, therefore, start the following 

 season, the season in which the crop is to be produced, in the best possible 

 condition in every respect. Under such conditions a bog could hardly 

 fail, barring accident, to produce its maximum crop. It will be seen that 

 this program calls not only for the prevention of the development of the 

 crop every other year, but also for the using of every opportunity^, in the 

 year of nonproduction, to definitely prepare the bog, in every possible 

 way, to do its utmost the following year. 



