WEATHER AND CRANBERRY PRODUCTION 



By Henry J. Franldini 



Research Professor in Charge of the Cranberry Station 



Weather in its known and unknown relations to cranberry production lias 

 always been a matter of much interest and speculation to growers. The un- 

 ceasing references to it through the years in the reports of the meetings of the 

 cranberry growers' associations and in other papers concerned with the industry 

 are ample evidence of this. The problems involved have had considerable study 

 at the Cranberry Station during fully a quarter of a century ,2 and they were 

 finally set out for major attention in December, 1935, in a project entitled "The 

 Relation of Weather to Cranberry Production Through Its Various Effects on 

 Photosynthesis and Growth." The main objectives have been (1) to discover 

 material helpful in the early and more accurate estimation of cranberry crops; 

 and (2) to find in weather relations clues to possible improvements in bog prac- 

 tices; The project is now completed and the results are given here. 



Temperature, precipitation, and sunshine were the only weather elements 

 studied extensively, the available data for humidity and wind seeming to be 

 inadequate and apparently without much significance. The three cranberry- 

 growing regions covered by this study are those described in the previous bulle- 

 tin, Weather in Cranberry Culture,^ as follows: 



In Massachusetts all of the industry is in the eastern part of the State 

 and most of it in Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol counties; in New 

 Jersey it is nearly all in the southern half, mostly in Burlington, Ocean, 

 and Atlantic counties; in Wisconsin it is spread widely in the central and 

 northwestern parts of the State, Wood, Jackson, Monroe, Juneau, and 

 Washburn being the leading counties. 



All the correlations presented here, except those concerned with cranberry 

 size and keeping quality in Massachusetts, are based on the yearly departures 

 of the potential production from the trend lines in Figure 1. These lines mark 

 the courses of the smoothed sliding 9-year averages of annual potential produc- 

 tion, developed in Tables 1, 2, and 3. The determination of the potential pro- 

 ductions was necessarily at best a rough procedure. They are based primarily 

 on the latest revised estimates of actual cranberry production issued by the 



Acknowledgements: — -The author acknowledges his obligations for help received to those in 

 charge of the following offices of the United States Weather Bureau: Boston, Mass. (G. H. Noyes) , 

 Trenton, N. J. (A. E. White), New York, N. Y. (Benjamin Parry), Philadelphia, Pa. (H. P. Adams), 

 Providence, R. I. (John Daily and Merton P. Mott), Milwaukee, Wis. (F. H. Coleman and H. J. 

 Thompson), La Crosse, Wis. (A. D. Sanial); to C. D. Stevens, in charge of the Boston office of the 

 Bureau of Agricultural Economics; to Dr. C. F. Brooks, Director of the Blue Hill Meteorological 

 Observatory; to Dr. Neil E. Stevens, Professor of Botany at the University of Illinois; to the late 

 C. S. Beckvvith and C. A. Doehlert of the New Jersey Cranberry and Blueberry Laboratory at 

 Pemberton; to H. F. Bain, formerly with the Bureau of Plant Industry and now cranberry field 

 man in Wisconsin; to Vernon Goldsworthy, manager of the Wisconsin Cranberry Sales Company; 

 to Dr. F. B. Chandler of the staff of the Cranberry Station; to George H. Phillips, Jr., weather 

 observer at Middleboro; and to the office of the Plymouth County Extension Service, J. T. Brown 

 in charge. 



^A. F. Wolf, Economist, The Hills Brothers Company, New York, N. Y., because of his interest 

 in weather and cranberry yield relationships, has given valuable assistance in the preparation of 

 this bulletin. 



^Mass. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 280, 1932, pp. 209 and 210; and Bui. 293, 1933. pp. 24 and 25. 

 (Copies in the Middleboro library.) 



^Mass. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 402, 1943, p. 26. (Copies in the Middleboro library.) 



