A cranberry field requires three years to mature to the point where it will yield berries, and five years before it will give the farmer a full crop. Bieler knew the game, though. I and my partners at the time saw that there was a market for cranberries, and we already knew the agriculture business. We hired some consultants and decided that this was a good area to farm. Plants need the right soil if they are to flourish.
Cranberries are very site-specific, thriving in acidic soil and sand.
Atoka's land was reserved by the Department of Agriculture at the beginning of the century to sell to people who wanted to set up agricultural operations. No one wanted it, though. Nothing but cranberries will grow there. But if you can grow cranberries, you don't need to grow anything else. While the discreet Bielers will not say exactly what the profit margins are, cranberry people in general note that theirs is perhaps the biggest money-maker of any crop, barring the illegal marijuana industry.