CAPE COD CRANBERRIES. 



585 



which is placed in charge of an overseer, and each com- 

 pany has a book-keeper. Each picker is assigned a strip 

 about three feet wide across a section of the bog, and he 

 is obliged to pick it clean as he goes. The pickers are 



Fig, 4. Screening the Berries. 



paid by the measure, which is a broad six-quart pail 

 with ridges marking the quarts (Fig. 2). Ten cents is 

 paid for a measure. There is wide variation in the 

 quantity which a picker will gather in a day, ranging 

 all the way from 10 measures for a slow picker, to 40 

 and even 50 for a rapid one ; and in extra good picking 

 75 measures have been secured. 



Various devices have been contrived for facilitating 

 cranberry picking. The Cape Cod growers like the 

 Lumbert picker best. This is illustrated in Fig. 3. 

 This is essentially a mouse-trap-like box with a front lid 

 raising by a spiral spring. The operator thrusts the 

 picker forward into the vines, closes the lid by bearing 

 down with his thumb, and then draws the implement 

 backwards so as to pull off the berries. Perhaps a 

 fourth of the pickers use the implements. Children are 

 not strong enough to handle them continuously, and 

 where the crop is thin they possess little advantage. 

 Raking off the berries is rarely practiced in the Cape 

 Cod region. It is a rough operation, and it tears the 

 vines badly. Late in fall, if picking has 

 been delayed and frost is expected or 

 pickers are scarce, the rake is sometimes 

 used. An ordinary steel garden rake is 

 employed. The berries are raked off 

 the vines, and the bog may then be 

 flooded and the berries are carried to 

 the flume, where they are secured. 



This picking time is a sort of a long 

 and happy picnic — all the happier for 

 being a busy one. The pickers look 

 forward to it from year to year. They 

 are invigorated by the change and the 

 novelty, and they must come near to 

 nature in the sweet and mellow Octo- 

 ber days. Those of our readers who 

 have cast their lot with hop pickers, or 

 who have camped in the clearings in blackberry time, 

 or who have joined the excursions to huckleberry 

 swamps, can know something of the experiences of the 



cranberry picker. Yet I fancy that one must actually 

 pick the cranberries in the drowsy Indian summer to 

 know fully what cranberry picking is like. 



The berries must now be sorted or "screened." If 

 there are no unsound berries, the fruit can be fairly well 

 cleaned by running it through a fanning mill ; and some 

 growers find it an advantage to put all the berries 

 through the mill before they go to the hand screeners. 

 A screen is a slatted tray about six feet long and three 

 and a half wide at one end and tapering to about ten 

 inches at the other, with a side or border five or six 

 inches high. The spaces in the bottom between the 

 slats are about one-fourth inch wide. The screen is set 

 upon saw-horses, and three women stand upon a side 

 . and handle over the berries, removing the poor ones 

 and the leaves and sticks, and working the good ones 

 towards the small and open end where they fall into a 

 receptacle (Fig. 4). The berries are barrelled directly 

 if they are not moist, but if wet they are first spread 

 upon sheets of canvas — old sails being favorites — and 

 allowed to remain until thoroughly dry. 



The cultivated cranberry is a native of our northern 

 states. It was first cultivated about 1810, but its cul- 

 ture had not become general until 40 or 50 years later. 

 The berries naturally vary in size and shape and color, 

 and three general types, named in reference to their 

 forms, were early distinguished — the Bell, the Bugle 

 and Cherry. These types are represented in Figs. 5 to 

 7, respecti v e 1 y. 

 So late as 1856 

 there appears to 



Fig. 5. 



be no record of any particular 

 named varieties aside from these gen- 

 eral types. But there are many named 

 sorts in cultivation now. These have been 

 multiplied from some superior or distinct 

 plant which someone has observed and 

 marked. Mr. Makepeace showed me seven 

 varieties in his largest bog. 



The common favorite is the Early Black, 

 shown natural size in Fig. 5. This is valuable because 

 of its earliness, as it comes in three weeks ahead of the 

 medium sorts. Picking begins upon this variety about 



