ANNUAL REPORT, 1946-47 29 



Prevalance of Cranberry Injects in the Season of 1946: 



1. Gj'psy moth infestation moderate in Plymouth County and inland; very 

 light in Barnstable County. 



2. Leafhoppers (Ophiola) not very abundant. 



3. Fruitworm infestation very light, rather lighter than in 1945. 



4. Black-headed fireworm not very troublesome. 



5. Ver3' few fire beetles (Cryptocephalus) found. 



6. Spotted fireworms (Cacoecia) very few. 



7. Spanwonns, both green and brown, about as usual. 



8. False armyworm infestation about normal. 



9. Cranberry girdler (Crambus) still much more troublesome than before 

 the war, owing to neglect of bog resanding. 



10. Spittle insect about as usual. 



11. Tipworm apparently ver3' niuch more prevalent generally than usual. 

 Probably partly as a result of this, the average terminal budding of the vines for 

 the 1947 crop on the bogs in this State was the poorest observed by the writer 

 in his forty years of cranberry experience. 



12. Bumblebees and honeybees were unusually abundant on the bogs every- 

 where throughout the cranberry flowering. A very remarkable and possibly very 

 instructive incident relative to bee abundance was observed. The winter flowage 

 was removed from a bog of two and a half acres In East Carver on June 20. This 

 bog reached full bloom about August 8. Bumblebee workers and males came to 

 this bog in astonishing numbers whenever the weather was fair throughout the 

 blooming. It was estimated that a third of a million of these bees were there 

 much of the time. Watching them at work, as they rose from the cranberry vines 

 and went back to them here and then there, gave one the strange feeling that he 

 was looking out on a bumblebee sea. Honej'bees seemed to be entirely absent. 

 The fruit, about 180 barrels of Early Black berries of fair size and color, was 

 gathered from this bog early in October. 



Frost Forecasts. These are continued as a special service, with the 1947 

 charges for the telephone service increased materially over those of previous 

 years to meet the larger costs caused partly by improvements. About 7200 acres 

 of bog in the hands of 204 subscribers are covered by the telephone warnings, 

 this being about three-fourths of the entire Massachusetts cranberry acreage with 

 fair to full flowage protection. The accessory warning service by radio is co- 

 operating as heretofore with the United States Weather Bureau office at Logan 

 Airport, the warnings being given mainly through station WEEI at Boston. 



Control of Cranberry Bog Weeds. (C. E. Cross.) A large number of experi- 

 ments have been set out on the State bog and other bogs since May 1, 1946, the 

 results of which have not been previously reported. 



1. In the belief that one of the greatest weed problems faced by cranberry 

 growers is that of controlling grasses and sedges which begin their season's growth 

 after the cranberry vines have started, many tests were made in July and August, 

 1946, with kerosene oils, Stoddard solvent, insecticide base oils, and a large num- 

 ber of strictly experimental oils known only by numerical designation. None of 

 these oils has, as yet, proved satisfactory as a selective weed killer during the 

 summer season. 



2. Stoddard solvent, sprayed at 400 gallons per acre during the first two weeks 

 of May has been found an excellent selective killer of asters. Kerosene at 1000 

 gallons per acre will not kill asters nearly as effectively, though neither treatment 

 injured cranberry vines or buds when applied before May 15. The Stoddard 

 solvent treatment is more effective, more easily applied, less injurious to vines, 



