CRANBERRY GROWlNCi 39 



aiul chaff rcniain in the l)()xcs with them, it hein;^ tliouyht tiiat tlicy aid 

 ventilation ; but the vines have no such effect and unattached leaves pro- 

 mote decay. Sand picked up in the scooping is very harmful among the 

 stored berries. Stones gathered with the berries bruise them as they are 

 picked and when they go through the separator, impairing their keeping 

 {[uality. 



A foreman, IJ scoopers, and 3 helpers are needed to pick a 13-acre bog. 

 Two of these men carry empty boxes to the pickers and take the full boxes 

 from the bog and stack them on the upland for trucking. Special wheel- 

 barrows with pneumatic tires (Figs. 33 A and 34 J'.) are best for remov- 

 ing the berries from a bog. 



After the crop is harvested, the vines are raked lightly with hand hay 

 rakes in the direction opposite to that in which they were scooped. Tiiis 

 clears the bog of loose material torn up by the scoops and trains the vines 

 for the next year. A market for the rakings as a mulch is developing 

 rapidly. Dry bogs should be picked with snaps and be raked early in the 

 following spring, for the less the vines are disturbed in the fall, the less 

 liable they are to winterkill. 



STORAGE 



The berries are stored in the packing house (screen house) in the pick- 

 ing boxes as they came from the bog (Fig. 35 A). The building, if tightly 

 constructed, should be kept close shut on damp and on warm days and be 

 well aired on cold nights, with fans if necessary. It should have capacity 

 to hold two-thirds of the maximum crop expected from the bog and a 

 proper supply of shipping boxes and shooks, as well as room to sort and 

 pack the fruit. A building of one floor, 40 by 70 feet, is large enough for 

 a 12-acre bog. Open sheds are cheap and make good storage. Cellars are 

 less satisfactory except in protection from freezing. The most modern 

 cranberry storages (Fig. 35 B) are lined with insulating materials to main- 

 tain a moderate temperature. Cold storage for this fruit is practicable. The 

 berries keep best at a temperature of 35° F. but they color best at from 

 45° to 50°. They keep and ship better after cold storage than after com- 

 mon storage. 



PREPARATION OF THE BERRIES FOR MARKET 



The first shipments usually go out within a week after picking begins, 

 in early September, and the crop is nearly all sold by Christmas, though 

 the growers often hold some fruit till after midwinter. Many prefer to 

 take the lower prices which the earlier shipments usually bring and get 

 rid of their berries promptly. Their fruit does not suffer the shrinkage 

 that late-shipped berries do, and the cost of sorting is much less. Some, 

 However, prefer to take these losses and gamble for higher prices. This 

 seems to have been increasingly risky in recent years. 



In preparation for market, the berries first go through a separator. 

 There are several makes of these machines. Those used on Cape Cod and 

 largely elsewhere (Figs. 36 and i7) have a hopper at the top to receive 

 the berries, a blower to clean them of chaff, several bounding boards to 

 separate the decayed from the sound fruit, and a grading device. 



Much of the fruit of the early shipments is often so sound that it may 

 be packed for shipping as it comes from the separator. Most of the berries, 



