256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



land actually under vines, the total acreage devoted to the 

 production of this crop directly and indirectly would probably 

 not be less than 40,000 acres. 



The average annual yield of cranberries per acre on the Cape 

 is a little less than 40 barrels. In all the other cranberry- 

 growing sections, except those of Washington and Oregon, the 

 average per acre yield is very much less than this. This appears 

 to be due partly to the superior natural conditions surrounding 

 the industry on the Cape, and partly to the naethods of culture 

 employed — particularly with reference to the use of sand as a 

 surface mulch. All the bogs on Cape Cod are covered with 

 sand before the vines are set out, and they are also resanded 

 more or less frequently after they have come to bearing. Sand 

 is also used in a similar way in Oregon and Washington, but 

 in New Jersey and Wisconsin only a very few of the bogs are 

 sanded at all. Moreover, the Cape Cod bogs are, as a rule, 

 kept almost entirely free from w^eeds, while in other sections 

 the bogs are always very weedy, this freedom from weeds on 

 the Cape being partly due to the use of the sand and partly to 

 better care. 



The following list, giving the cranberry production on Cape 

 Cod, in New Jersey and in Wisconsin for the past few years, 

 will give some idea of the lead that Cape Cod has in this 

 industry over all other sections. It is the belief of the writer 

 that the natural conditions are so superior for the production 

 of this crop on the Cape that this lead will always be main- 

 tained, the comparative lack of suitable and accessible sand 

 being a factor which must certainly always be a detriment to 

 the industry in other sections. Moreover, the climate of the 

 Cape seems to be more suitable than that of other sections, the 

 warmer temperatures of New Jersey being apparently respon- 

 sible for greater troubles with fungous diseases, and the colder 

 climates of Nova Scotia and Wisconsin causing the berries 

 many times to be smaller on account of the shorter growing 

 season, and also the losses from frosts to be in proportion much 

 greater. 



