2 BULLETIN 960, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
study of the flooding waters in various parts of the State. In 1920 
careful comparative shipping and storage tests were made of berries 
harvested in various ways. 
The investigation of water-raking has been confined to the State 
of Wisconsin, because this method of harvesting cranberries is prac- 
ticed nowhere else. Indeed, it is doubtful whether it would be 
practicable elsewhere, even if desirable. To bring about its intro- 
duction on the large bogs of Massachusetts and New Jersey such 
extensive alterations would be necessary as to make it out of the 
question unless the practice could be proved to be extraordinarily 
beneficial. 
; STORAGE CONDITIONS. 
Aside from the action of insects or actual crushing, cranberries in 
storage spoil chiefly from decay caused by fungi or from smothering. 
These causes of spoilage and some of the factors which influence 
them have been discussed in several papers (4, 5, 6, and 9).1 It is 
obvious that those conditions which have been proved injurious to 
the keeping quality of dry-raked cranberries will also be injurious, 
perhaps even more seriously so, to water-raked berries. Careful 
handling, low temperatures, and good ventilation will improve the 
keeping quality of water-raked cranberries as of cranberries harvested 
in other ways. 
A striking example of the importance of good ventilation in the 
storage of water-raked cranberries was observed at Minneapolis in 
1918. Here water-raked cranberries of the same variety (Searls), 
from the same marsh, and handled in the same way were stored in 
picking boxes and in barrels. On December 9, 1918, the average 
condition of typical samples showed 22 per cent of spoiled berries 
in the lot stored in boxes and 34 per cent in those in barrels. 
It is obvious and must be constantly borne in mind in considering 
the material presented in this bulletin that the results here reported 
can not be expected to apply to all cranberry conditions. Too many 
variable factors are involved to make it possible to duplicate exactly 
conditions or results. The variation in the kinds and quantity of 
fungi present on different bogs and even in different seasons on the 
same bog has been frequently remarked. Different varieties of cran- 
berries are known to have quite different keeping qualities and may 
well be differently affected by water-raking. Different water and 
climatic conditions would undoubtedly have an important effect on 
the results. To mention only two examples: One could not expect 
water-raked berries to dry so quickly in the generally humid atmos- 
phere of the cranberry regions of Washington and Oregon as in the 
much drier air of Wisconsin, and the relatively warm flooding water 
1 The serial numbers in parentheses refer to ‘‘Literature cited” at the end of this bulletin. 
