TEMPERATURES OF THE CRANBERRY REGIONS OF 
THE UNITED STATES IN RELATION TO THE 
GROWTH OF CERTAIN FUNGI 
By Neil E. Stevens, t 
Pathologist , Fruit-Disease Investigations , Bureau of Plant Industry , 
United States Department of Agriculture 
INTRODUCTION 
In his studies of the diseases of the cranberry (Oxycoccus macrocarpus) 
Shear { 8 ) x pointed out that losses from fungus diseases are most 
serious in the southern sections of its area of cultivation, being greatest 
in New Jersey and decreasing northward through Long Island and Massa¬ 
chusetts. He further suggested that climatic conditions, particularly 
the longer hot summer, are chiefly responsible for the greater amount of 
disease in the southern localities. 
As a basis for a more accurate study of this relation, the writer has 
undertaken to compare the temperature of these regions quantitatively. 
For this purpose a Weather Bureau observation station supposed to be 
fairly representative of the region has been chosen for each of the three 
chief cranberry-growing sections: Middleboro, Massachusetts (elevation 
53 feet), Indian Mills, New Jersey (76 feet), and Grand Rapids, Wis¬ 
consin (1,021 feet). It is of course recognized that various localities in 
each region differ more or less widely, but these stations probably repre¬ 
sent fairly well the difference in the three areas. 
In addition to these representative stations, two others, North Head, 
Washington (elevation 211 feet), and Farmington, Maine (450 feet), are 
included, the former because it is close to the cranberry bogs now being 
developed in the Pacific coast region, the latter because it is the nearest 
station to a bog in Madrid, Maine, which is of interest as having perhaps 
the shortest and coolest summer of any commercial bog in the easter 
United States. 2 
RAINFALL IN CRANBERRY REGIONS 
The relation of rainfall to the growth of the cultivated cranberry and 
its fungus parasites is probably not very direct. The cranberry grows 
on bog land where the water table is close to the surface, and, when culti¬ 
vated, the land is drained and subjected to artificial flooding. Even for 
parasitic fungi the frequent heavy fogs, especially on the Pacific coast, 
and the abundant dews are probably as important as rainfall. The 
1 Reference is made by number (italic) to “literature cited," p. 529. 
2 The elevation of this bog is, according to Mr. Toothacher, roadmaster of the Sandy River and Rangeley 
Lakes R. R., about 750 feet. 
(521) 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
kv 
Vol. XI, No. 10 
Dec. 3,1917 
Key No. G-127 
