Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-10-01
agricultural.
CranberrIeS.

CranberrieS.
THE WAY THEY ARE GROWN IN NEW JERsEY-A
VISIT TO MANAHAwKEN.
Manahawken, New Jersey, according to
the Philadelphia Press, is noted for its cran-
berry swamps. writer in that journal de-
scrih,s the culture of the berry at that place
1t lies in the midst of the greatest cram
berry bpttoms in the world, and this aclduat-
ed berry is there titled and cultivated with a
degree OF expertness that not only approach
es. but is science. The cranberry market is
supplied from three sources, the sandy spur
of Cape Cod, the boys OF Northwestern Je,-
sew, and the swamps of the Northwest
Michigan, Minnesota. and Wisconsin. Our
Western farmers gather the wild berry, the
Eastern growers produce fruit cultivated
with the utmost care. At Cape Cod, the
pioneer attempts at cultivation were made.
They were oil course crude, and the results
imperfect Captain Hall, OF Dennis, Barn.
stable county, Massachusetts, dire tied atten-
tion to the berry about sixty years ago, an
gradually the farmers OF that bleak cape en-
gagged in the business until the whole coun-
try became an immense cranberry field.
Twenty years ago scientific cultivation began,
and the progress has since been rapid. Ten
or twelve years ago the culture was intro
duced into Jersey. Two Massachusetts cram
berry growers named Cloudy settled at Tom g
RIVER, cleared cranberry bog and propa-
gated vines The wildern. So at once assn m-
ed value. Worthless lands came into mar ket,
barren waste found fields Tor improvement
and the business extended over Ocean, Bur-
lington and Atlantic countless until to-day
over fifteen thousand acres of swamp and
r. apd tom ru
employment TO over halt a million of people,
and the desert has everywhere become gar
den. wi ere human bees store fortunes, W hose
very conception was ten years ago fabulous
Cranberry boys are of two kinds, peat
and savannah. The savannahs are easily
worked, but less productive than the peat
bottoms. The cultivation of each is, how
ever, lnrgly similar, and the story of the peat
boys answers for both Peat boys are clear
ed IN the cedar swamps, which are cold, wet
morasses, led by unfaillng springs, aud nour-
ish countless burns of iodine colored Wa ter
that inteIsect all the surround ng country.
The sailor who fills bis cask with this clear
cold water, can carry it around the world
and never find 1t ferment, and the capitalist
who builds a mi Il in the recesses Of the pine
woods finds cours ng from the first swamp a
race to turn his water-wheels and motor
power to bear his sawed lumber to a railway
station. From the depths of the boys grow
cedars of exquisite grain and great size and
hundreds OF feet below the surface, the
sounding-rod strikes cedar logs of immense
proportions. Luxuriant growths of fern and
spangham moss add miniature jungle ap-
pearance to the picture. and below are great
deposits Of peat of iDexhaustible richness,
fertile as the black prairies OF Iowa.
Alter the bog is cleared-wIth gleat diff
outward the ITuft planted, tho aub berry
grower has comparatively little work. The
writer 10 the Press gives the experience of a
noted grower in Manahawken:
"Such a man could not TAIL to utilize every
natural appliance and the intelligent expe
rience that years of cranberry culture had
provided. He commenced with deeper drain
age to secure warmer bottoms. He rejected
the old clumsy dump-car, and patented one
light, economical and efficient. He built
heavy a Iod-gateo to insure thorough flooding.
He sanded his beg fifteen inches instead OF
three. and reduced the height of the stall Ks
from twelve inches to six, while be increased
their bearing capacity in the same ratio
He planted only young shoots instead of ole
roots, and economIzed space to that extent
He studied the habits OF the two great enc
mics of the cranberry, the fruit-worm anC
the vine worm, and mastered them, anc
finally introduced later season for picking
so as to insure perfectly developed ano
ripened berry.
g For years the worms destroyed bolt
vines and fruit, without any remedy being
known for their destructive ravages. s.
ruinous were they that in one year tue plant
atoms at Cape Cod suffered to the extent o
fifty thousand barrels from the berry-worn
alone. The moths appeared late in the fal
and the new crop of worms remaining 10 tn
larva state during the winter ushered int
being armies of voracious carerpilars in the
early summer. While scientific grower
were discussing with gravity the practlca
and interesting question whether the worm
were d, posted 10 the berry by moths eg.
laid on the unfolded blossom or reached the
fruit by puncturIng the skin and workin,
into the inside, Bishop watched the larv
and saw that it issued into a worm abou
the first OF May. Then be flooded his swan
until the middle of that month and browne
out the devourers. Could such an efectua
remedy be found for the eurculio, plum Gu
ture would at once become as extensive as II
now the cranberry.
"AIter doing all this it would be suppose
that all difficulties in the way of the Gran
berry grow ers lad been overcome. But 70
the principal evil as yet no preventive ha
been found. That evil is the scald. Late il
the summer, when the berri,s are maturing
and the first blush of crimson touches tb
upper side OF the fruit, the under surface o
the berry slowly rots, and thriving plenty i
changed to almost desolation. What seal
is and how to avoid it are problems altogeth
er unsolved. Tue decay Is supposed to re
suit from the hot sun turning the surfac
moisture of bog into a steam, and thu
scaIding the fruit, but the suppositlon i
theory only. 1t operates in variance to an
fixed law, and of two neighborlng hogs, on
will be scalded out and the other be unInjur
ed. Thus far no -scald has appeared at th
grounds of Manahawken. Bishops belief
that the dwar6ng of bis stalls confines th
fruit in the substratum Of cooler air Away
to be found along the surface of the eartt
This may be correct. ] give it as q possibl
solution OF a qut stion which, when xplalne
and overcome, will save annually millions @
our material productive wealth. Possibly
natural GOODNESS OF the soil may help th
Manahawken plantations, but any reasonin
on the subject is speculation, and that only
The importance of the subject will be under
stood from the fact that OF the crop of th
year in the eastern fields probably three-fftt
will be destroyed by the scald.''
To give Medicine 10 Animals.
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