628 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



open savanna land or cleared cedar swamp are converted into 

 cultivated bog. The usual procedure is to construct a dyke or 

 dam across the stream which waters the tract and along the 

 sides of the area also wherever the natural slope of the land is 

 not sufficient to serve as a barrier ; ditches are then cut through at 

 intervals and the vines are planted. In the late auttimn or early 

 winter the floodgates are put down, and the green bog becomes 

 a spacious lake.* Early in May the water is drawn ofif and after 

 about two weeks the bog is again flooded for a few days to drown 

 out certain insect pests which devour the vines. The bogs occa- 

 sionally require to be sanded to lighten the soil and produce 

 better growth. This is done in winter by spreading the sand 

 over the ice, which when it melts, of course, deposits the sand 

 evenly over the bog. 



By September first the picking begins. Some of it is done by 

 hand, but much of it by scoops provided with long slender fingers, 

 which, drawn lengthv/ise along the vines, pull the berries ofif into 

 the hollow of the scoop. The berries that are scattered or lost 

 from the scoops are often secured by flooding the bogs again, 

 when 'they rise to the surface and can be scooped up wherever 

 they collect. The picking ends about the middle of October and 

 then the bogs are raked so as to draw all the vines in one direc- 

 tion to aid the gathering of the next crop. Several different 

 types of berry have originated as the result of cultivation, a large 

 ovoid one, the "Howell"; a more spherical berry, the ordinary 

 Jersey form, and a smaller, darker one, the "Cape Cod." All are 

 mere forms of 0. macrocarpus. 



The picking was in old times done by the natives, but for some 

 years past it has been almost entirely done by Italians, who are 

 brought down from Philadelphia and other neighboring cities in 

 large numbers, accompanied by their wives and families, all of 

 whom aid in the work. Their camps, with blazing fires and 

 music at night, are quite picturesque, ofifset as they are by the 

 darkness of the surrounding forest and cedar swamps. 



PI. — Mid- June to mid-July. Fr. — Late August to mid-Sep- 

 tember, persisting over winter. 



* See PI. CXXIX. 



