584 



CAPE COD CRANBERRIES. 



Similarities of soil and topography are always well illus- 

 trated by the plants they produce. The ' ' pine barren " 

 flora of New Jersey reaches northward into the Cape 



Fig. 2. Cranberry Measure. 



country, only losing some of its more southern types 

 because of the shorter and severer seasons. But more 

 diligent herborizing will no doubt reveal closer relation- 

 ship between New Jersey and Cape Cod than we now 

 know. An instance in my own experience illustrates 

 this. The striped sedge i^Carex striata, var. hrevis) is 

 recorded as a rare plant, growing in pine barrens from 

 New Jersey southward, and yet in these Plymouth 

 woods, in the half sandy marshes, I found it growing in 

 profusion. Even eastern Massachusetts is in need of 

 botanical exploration ! So the floras run along this 

 coast ; and it is not strange that Cape Cod and New 

 Jersey are both great cranberry producing regions. 



The country comprises an alternation of low, sandy 

 elevations and small swamps in which the Cassandra, or 

 leather-leaf, and other heath-like plants thrive. The 

 pitch pine makes open and scattered forests, or in some 

 parts oaks and birches and other trees cover the better 

 reaches. Fire has overrun the country in many places, 

 leaving wide and open stretches carpeted with bear- 

 berry (arctostaphylos) and dwarf blueberries. There 

 are no fences, no improvements, except such improvised 

 structures as may be seen now and then about some 

 isolated cranberry bog. Atone place we came suddenly 

 upon a school house of perhaps twelve by twenty, stand- 

 ing lonely and bare in the midst of a scrub oak wilder- 

 ness, with not a house in sight. Clear and handsome 

 little lakes are found in some parts of the wilderness, 

 and upon the banks of one we found a hermitage where 

 a half dozen Boston men shut themselves off from the 

 world in the summer months. Everywhere one finds 

 clear and winding brooks, abounding in trout. And over 

 all the open glades, the great-flowered aster [Aster 

 spectahilis') is brilliant in the autumn sun. 



It is in the occasional swamps in this sandy region that 

 the cranberry plantations, or " bogs" as they ^re called 

 in Massachusetts, are made. In their wild state these 

 bogs look unpromising enough, being choked with bushes 

 and brakes, as shown in the corner-piece of Fig. i, page 

 582. It has required considerable courage to attack 



and subdue them. I am filled with a constant wonder 

 that the sandy plains are not also utilized for the culti- 

 vation of blueberries. These fruits now grow in 

 abundance over large areas, and they are gathered for 

 market. It would only be necessary to enclose the areas, 

 protect them from fire, and remove the miscellaneous 

 vegetation, to have a civilized blueberry farm. Cer- 

 tainly cranberry and blueberry farms would make an 

 interesting and profitable combination. The expense of 

 growing the blueberries would be exceedingly slight, 

 and the crop would be off before cranberry picking 

 begins. With greater attention given to the crop, we 

 should no doubt soon find out why it is that the berries 

 fail in certain years, and it is possible that some control 

 could be exercised. I have often predicted that large 

 areas of the great pine plains of Michigan — which look 

 almost exactly like the Massachusetts barrens — will 

 eventually be used for the growing of blueberries. To 

 be sure, wild berries are yet common, but they would 

 not interfere with the sale of better and cleaner berries 

 which should come from civilized plantations. Wild 

 cranberries are still abundant over thousands of acres, 

 and the production of cultivated berries is rapidly in- 

 creasing ; yet the price has advanced from 50 cents and 

 $1 per bushel, with an uncertain market, 50 years ago, 

 to 15 and 20 cents a quart. Wild blackberries are still 

 abundant, yet they do not interfere with the sale of 

 cultivated sorts.* 



The largest cultivated bog in existence lies about six 

 miles north of Wareham, and is under the management 

 of A. D. Makepeace, one of the oldest and most experi- 

 enced cranberry growers in the country. This bog is 

 160 acres in extent. Other bogs in the vicinity belong 

 to the same management. These bogs are all as clean 

 as the tidiest garden. The long and level stretches, like 

 a carpet strewn with white and crimson beads, are a 

 most pleasing and novel sight. Here in early Septem 

 ber a thousand pickers camp about the swamps, sgme in 

 temporary board cabins, but most of them in tents. 

 The manager furnishes the provisions, which the camp- 



FiG. 3. Picker. 



ers cook for themselves, and he rents them the tents. 

 One hundred and twenty pickers constitute a company, 



*We shall soon publish an illustrated article upon the huckleber- 

 ries and blueberries. 



