ANNUAL REPORT, 1938 43 



except species of Rosa, which seem veiy resistant to this treatment. Feather 

 ferns maj' recover from the treatment a little. Any kind of cheap salt may be 

 used, and it is thought that the winter flood will remove the salt from the soil 

 so that it will not affect the growth of cranberry vines the following year. 



Cold Storage of Cranberries. (C. I. Gunness, H. J. Franklin, and C. R. Fel- 

 Itrs.) The study of home cold storage of cranberries carried on in 1936 and 1937 

 was continued, the Departments of Engineering and of Horticultural Manu- 

 factures cooperating with the Cranberry Station. See the report of the Depart- 

 ment of Engineering. 



Hurricane Injury to Cranberry Bogs. (H. J. Franklin.) 



Tidal Flooding. The highest tidal wave in Buzzards Bay since 1635 accom- 

 panied the hurricane of September 21, 1938. It flooded a number of cranberry 

 bogs near the shore. The following obseivations on the effects of this flooding 

 were made on September 23, October 20, and December 12, 1938: 



1. The vines were killed very generally on limited areas where the water 

 rushed over them with most speed and volume. 



2. Vines not picked before the flood came showed no injury from, it, even 

 where the salt water re;nained over a bog for three days. 



3. Vines picked several days before the flooding showed little injury-. 



4. The foliage and terminal buds were killed on well over half of the vines 

 picked only a day or two before the flooding, but the woody part? of the vines 

 generalh" survived. 



5. The water left a very undesirable amount of salt on the berries, but this 

 was largely removed by subsequent rains. 



6. As some bog weeds can perhaps be controlled by flooding with ocean water, 

 these notes may help bomeone wishing to try this. The flood killed back hair- 

 cap moss completely. 



Loss by Wind. Several growers observed that the wind of the hurricane blew 

 some of the berries off the vines on bogs in Wareham. This loss was probably 

 greater and more general than was realized. On a bog of about fifty acres in 

 Greene, R. I., it was estimated that the wind took over 1,000 barrels, more than 

 half the crop. It took all the berries from one section that was estimated to have 

 a crop of 70 barrels an acre before the storm. The berries were found scattered 

 in the woods for a mile from the bog. The wind at the Rhode Island State Air- 

 port at Hills Grove, fifteen miles from Greene, reached a velocity of fully 100 

 miles an hour (estimated) during the storm. 



COOPERATIVE CRANBERRY INVESTIGATIONS 



Conducted by the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of 



Agriculture, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Agricultural 



Experiment Station 



H. F. Bergman, Senior Pathologist, U. S. D. A., in Charge 



Development of Strains of Cranberry Resistant to False Blossom. (H. F. 



Bergman and W. E. Truran.) During the past season, using the varieties Aviator, 

 Early Black, McFarlin, Paradise Meadow, and Shaw's Success, reciprocal crosses 

 of each variety with each of the other varieties named were made. Reciprocal 

 crosses were made also between Centennial and the varieties Early Black, McFar- 

 lin, and Shaw's .Success. In addition to these a cross was made between Centen- 

 nial and Paradise Meadow. Seeds from these crosses will be planted during 



