The Small Fruits. 179 



275. Picking: and storing:. The berries are ripe enough 

 to gather when the seeds are brown. Picking should com- 

 mence as soon as the fruit is well colored, and the fruit 

 should be so handled as to prevent bruising. It should 

 only be picked when dry, or if necessarily gathered wet 

 should be quickly dried. The later berries that are not 

 well colored when picked will improve in color if spread in 

 a shaded, airy place. 



Many cranberries are now gathered with an implement 

 resembling a rake, the use of which is thought to benefit 

 old and densely-matted vines, by thinning them out. Ber- 

 ries so gathered are run through a machine resembling a 

 fanning mill, to free them from foreign matters. 



Different varieties of the cranberry vary greatly in keep- 

 ing quality, hence the early and later varieties should not 

 be mixed, if the fruit is expected to keep well. Berries 

 free from spots and bruises, and of a good keeping sort, 

 should keep all winter in a cool cellar. They may be pre- 

 served indefinitely by canning, and by placing them in 

 stone jugs or crocks, filling the latter with cold water that 

 has been previously well boiled, and storing in a cool cel- 

 lar, they are said to keep a full year, or even longer. 



Cranberries keep best in boxes sufficiently open to per- 

 mit ventilation. They are commonly packed for market 

 in barrels. 



2X6. The black-headed cranberry worm {Rlwpobofa vac- 

 ciniand) (the "vine worm" of Massachusetts and the " fire 

 worm" of New Jersey), and the yellow-headed cranberry 

 worm [Teras vacciniivorana) feed on the foliage, buds and 

 young berries during summer, often proving very destruc- 

 tive. They are held in check by retaining the water on 

 the marshes late in the spring, or by drawing it off early 



