34 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 44/ 



Fig. 30. Early Black Cranberries Ready to be Picked. 



HARVESTING 



Cranberry harvesting generally begins about Labor Day and continues till 

 about October 20 (Fig. 30). The harvest period is so short that many growers, 

 especially if the season is late, have to begin when the fruit is only partly colored. 

 Earl}' Black berries keep best if they are picked before they are fully red. The>- 

 usually should be gathered the second week in September. The later Howes 

 are picked, the better they keep; it is often best to gather them late in Septem- 

 ber, but they should be left on the vines till the second week in October where bog 

 conditions allow it. Other Massachusetts varieties are harvested as follows: 

 Black Veil, the first week in September; McFarlin, Bugle, Centerville, and Cen- 

 tennial, the second or third week in October. The berries grow sweeter and larger 

 as they ripen, so the later they are picked, the better the sauce they make and 

 the greater the yield. 



Cranberries should be gathered only when the vines are dry. A frosty night 

 compels the flooding of unpicked areas, and usually little harvesting can be done 

 the next day. Berries picked late in the afternoon keep better than those gathered 

 in the heat of the day. 



Cranberries were picked b>- hand at first, and it took an army to gather the 

 crop. Some hand picking is still done on the Cape (Fig. 31 A), but it is an ex- 

 pensive and probabK- unwise practice except on thin or poorly anchored vines 

 where scoops do too much harm. Small but effective devices known as "snaps" 

 (Fig. 3 IB) are often used to gather the fruit on new or sparse vines. Power 

 machines (Fig. 31C) have been used considerably but are not widely favored. 



The Cape Cod and Wisconsin crops are now picked mostly with scoops (Figs. 

 32 and 33B). Hand picking is more common in New Jersey. 



To have the pickers work steadily, without haste and with as little waste as 

 possible, is a good rule. If help is scarce and water supplies are low, however, 

 it sometimes is best to pick the crop hastily to save it from frost, great though 

 the waste. The speed with which scooping should be done also depends on the 

 crop and on prices; $5 a barrel justifies rapid scooping unless the crop is heavy; 

 but $10 or more with an average crop calls for careful work. Fully a fifth of the 

 whole Cape Crop is left on the bogs by the pickers. 



