28 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 441 



the soil beneath the mulch, provided the tree had not effectively removed the 

 major portions of them as the mineralization took place. 



Analysis of the soils for these elements revealed that the variations between 

 the duplicate samples obtained from the various plots during any sampling period 

 were much greater than the variations caused by the elements added in the mulch. 

 Therefore it is not possible to say that the mulching procedure was effective in 

 mobilizing or increasing the exchangeable calcium, magnesium, or potassium, 

 although trees under hay mulch were superior in performance and appearance 

 to the trees receiving the other two treatments. 



THE CRANBERRY STATION 



East Wareham, Massachusetts 



H. J. Franklin in Charge 



Administration. Pursuant to providing acts of the legislature, considerable 

 office changes were made in the main building of the station to accommodate 

 increased personnel, an oil-burning plant was installed in the basement for heat- 

 ing the laboratory and offices, much new laboratory equipment was added, and a 

 new full-time clerk was employed. These provisions should greatlj' increase the 

 efficiency of the station and make it fossible to finish in reasonable time some 

 important lines of work that have long been in process. 



General. An unusual combination of circumstances produced a large crop of 

 cranberries in Massachusetts and the country as a whole in 1946, and there was 

 a remarkable market demand for the fruit at record high prices. The state bog 

 crop was the largest since that of 1923 and is returning nearly 32,000 dollars to 

 the State Treasury. 



Notable features of the 1946 cranberry season in Massachusetts were a very 

 unseasonable frost on July 16-17 which destroyed over 1200 barrels of berries, 

 mostly in Holliston, Plymouth, Waquoit, Santuit, Wakeby, and Brewster; and 

 excessive rain in August (12.61 inches at East Wareham) that caused bogs to be 

 flooded to such an extent that, as estimated, 15,000 barrels of berries were ruined. 

 The berries of the Massachusetts crop proved to have very good keeping quality 

 in spite of this rain. 



Injurious and Beneficial Insects Affecting the Cranberry. (H. J. Franklin.) 

 Bulletin 239 was revised and amplified and presented for republication. 



DDT. Investigations made in 1946 indicated that this insecticide is effective 

 against the cranberry tipworm and the cranberry weevil, and it was advocated 

 as a control for these insects as well as for the gypsy moth and the black-headed 

 fireworm in the 1947 Cranberry Insect and Disease Control Chart. 



Chlordane (CioHeCls) used both as a dust and in a spray was not nearly so 

 effective as DDT as a control for gypsy moth caterpillars and blunt-nosed leaf- 

 hoppers (Ophiola). 



Helicopters. Observations of these machines in commercial operations against 

 cranberry pests in the spring and early summer of 1947 lead to the conclusion 

 that they are likely to soon come into general use on Massachusetts bogs. 



