July, 1918 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
165 
CRANBERRY CULTURE 
Edited by Mrs. S. N. Whittlesey, Cranmoor, Secretary Wisconsin 
Cranberry Growers Association 
Blight Problems 
In sending out inquiries as to 
causes, prevention, and treatment 
of blight and false blossoms, Pres- 
ident Searls says, “we have asked 
a mighty hard pair of questions.” 
We know this is true. It is be- 
cause there is a general lack of, 
and need of knowledge that we 
sought information. Whether 
from indifference, or inability, 
the responses have failed to ap- 
pear except from Mr. Searls who 
sends us the following : 
“I have looked upon the ques- 
tion of cranberry blight in a lit- 
tle different way from what the 
growers usually term blight. I 
look upon this troble as rather a 
manifestation of weakness, or of 
injury, which may have been re- 
ceived a long time before the 
bloom has taken place. The vine 
may have been weakened by over- 
flooding, which may be done by 
being put under water too early 
in the fall — or continued too late 
in the spring, or the bloom on 
very young berries injured by 
cold nights. Blight may be 
caused by snow storms at a criti- 
cal season in the bloom, also, 
blight may be caused by drying 
winds where the root system is 
not well protected. 
I believe we should not expect 
every blossom to mature fruit. 
Most plants produce a greater 
amount of bloom than they can 
possibly carry to maturity. I be- 
lieve the wise grower will look 
well to provide the best possible 
conditions for his plants, that 
they may be strong, healthy, and 
well fed. In order to do this, we 
plant on well sanded ground. 
Where this has not been done at 
the time of planting, we give the 
plants several applications of 
sand, of say, Vg-inch at a time, un- 
til we have a bed on which any 
cranberry plants can be assured 
congenial living quarters. The 
sand will greatly help in maintain- 
ing a proper temperature on cool 
nights, it also protects the root 
system from the drying winds, 
and greatly aiding in keeping a 
proper amount of moisture for the 
plants. (uu- 
11- J. Gebhardt, of Black River vtlr 
best he has ever seen. The fertil- 
izer is applied in the spring about 
500 pounds to the acme. Vines 
also show up well where hard- 
wood ashes was used at the rate 
of four barrels to the acre. The 
yield has doubled where these 
were used. 
The Apple Grading Law. 
( Continued from page 163) 
variation in packing than a half 
inch in diameter, so if you arc in- 
tending next year to label an ap- 
ple fancy, you must grade it to size 
as well as color. There is no size 
requirement in standard A and 
standard B, except that you must 
abel on the package the smallest 
| size in the package. It will pay 
you to sort sizes and label dif- 
Falls, reports some spring killing, *!§( 
caused, he thinks, by pruning and sizes, but do not sell small 
other work among the vines dur-|| sizos for nmch less than y° u <lo 
the big ones. That is what you 
are doing under your old grading 
system. 
Under the grading law you are 
going to handle apples more care- 
fully, sort them on cloth tables 
Ijpadded so that they will not bruise. 
‘ Tou are going to do more spray- 
ing and more thinning. You are 
going to do more pruning, because 
pruning and thinning will raise 
the size of your apple and you will 
not have so many small ones. 1 
believe the result of our grading 
i || law will be to increase the produc- 
tion of standard apples in the 
Wisconsin materially. I 
it will result in increasing 
the price that Wisconsin apples 
will bring. I believe it will result 
in taking off the stigma, “Oh, those 
are Wisconsin apples,” and chang- 
ing it to an exclamation “Oh, those 
Wisconsin apples ! ’ ’ 
ing the month of April. Twenty ', 
to twenty-five per cent, he thinks,© 
would be a fair estimate of dam-®| 
age done, but is pleased to add 
that prospects are for a fair crop 
with yield about same as last year. 
His first, blossom appeared 
June 11th, which was ten days 
earlier than last year and six days 
earlier than the previous year. < 
Mr. Gebhardt planted a two 
acre piece this spring and con-[ 
siders growing conditions have 
been very good. ji| 
Edward Hableman, of Beacon, |f|| 
, . ’diistate of 
is meeting with good success niJfl, .. 
,, T, In believe i 
the use of fertilizers. Tankage 
has been used for four years and 
some of the pieces have given a 
yield of three bushels to the 
square rod. Injury was done some 
pieces by over sanding two years' 
ago. The prospect this year is' 
