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ADDENDUM TO "CRANBERRY ICE"i 



By Henry J. Franklin, 

 Research Professor in charge of the Cranberry Station 



Winterkilling 



Cranberry winterkilling in Massachusetts in the winter of 1943-44 was the 

 most extensive and severe in the memory of the oldest growers, causing an 

 estimated reduction in the 1944 crop of at least 30 percent. The vines on many 

 bogs were all killed down to the ground. The extent of this damage was not 

 surprising, for a much larger cranberry acreage than usual failed to be flooded 

 when it should have been because of the lack of enough rain to build up water 

 supplies in the fall and early winter. 



The severe frost of May 18-19, which cut off all the new growth that had 

 developed on the winterkilled bogs up to that time, and the severe drouth that 

 prevailed most of the summer were very unfavorable to good recovery of the 

 injured vines. In spite of this, the new vine growth by fall was satisfactory on 

 nearly all of the damaged areas. 



Some growers tried to help the recovery of their bogs by mowing off the dead 

 vines, resanding, or fertilizing, but there is little evidence that any of these meas- 

 ures was definitely beneficial. They generally resulted in an undesirable over- 

 growth of runners. 



Frost 



The frost on the night of May 18-19, 1944, considering the date of its occur- 

 rence and the minimum bog temperatures reached (from 14° to 25°F.), was one 

 of the most severe in Massachusetts cranberry history. The estimated damage 

 to the crop was 18 percent of the potential crop, had there been no winterkilling 

 and no harmful frost. It doubtless would have taken fully half the crop if it 

 had not been preceded by the winter injury. It killed all the season's new cran- 

 berry growth on many bogs and caused the old cranberry foliage on a few small 

 areas to turn dark again as in winter. Further evidence of its severity is the 

 fact that in some places it killed oaks, some of them 20 feet tall, so completely 

 that they showed no recovery afterward. 



The extensive cranberry injury from this frost was due partly to lack of water 

 for flooding and partly to freezing of the vines over the frost flood on some of the 

 colder bogs. Also, since most of the bogs were very dry and absorbed much 

 more water than usual, many with enough water did not get flooded as soon as 

 they should have. 



This was essentially a "black frost" or "freeze", as little or no frost formed on 

 most bogs. The wind was dusty near the ground in many places and blew 

 strongly all day and considerably during the night but calmed toward sunrise. 

 There was no ground fog and the sky was very clear during the night. 



Preceding conditions were probably on the whole more favorable to the oc- 

 currence of this frost than to that of any previous one in Massachusetts cranberry 

 history. The mean annual temperature of 1943 in northern^ New England had 

 been 1.2 degrees and in souther n^ New England 0.6 degrees below normal. The 



^Mass. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 402, 1943, pp. 25-67. (Copies in the Middleboro library). 

 ^Northern New England: Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; Southern New England: 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut (as defined in Climatological Data). 



