Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-01-10
HARVESTING CRANBERRIES.
Picturesque Scenes In the Great Marsh o
Wisconsin.

| DeIll0, WIS.,, says correspondents Oh
the New York Tribune, is sneeringly
dubbed the Cranberry City by the news
papers of rival towns, and at picking
time the visitor is impressed with the
thought that it is no misnomer. All
other business interests then seem SUBJ
servient to this, for the harvest is of no
mean importance to river town of 8, 200
inhabitants; the annual shipments some
times reaching the astounding figures of
$4,000 bushels from the large marsh of
Sackett Brothers and that of Carey
Brothers, whose united annual expendi-
lures are not far from 800 600.
When the picking begins, in October,
the whole country round turns out en-
nasse, for berry time is succession of
gala days-men.. women and children
pouring toward the marshes in what
seems an endless stream of humanity,
all eager to earn the excellent wages
that are always paid. The noisy throng
is largely made up of Scandinavians and
Germans, by whom portions of the
country are thickly settled, the men in
quaint garments of sober home-spun,
high boots and awkward blue caps, ard
smoking the ubiquitous huge-bowled
porcelain pipe from the fatherland, the
women with gay colored shawls tied
over the head and falling on the shoul-
ders, short stiff dresses and wooden
shoes. Children of all ages accompany
them, looking curious enough, dressed
in precisely the same somber attire as
their parents, which gives them the
appearance of veritable Lilliputians.
Most of the pilgrims toward the cran-
berry Mecca go on foot, but some ride
in heavy farm wagons, canvas covered,
and drawn by sleepy oxen, with whose
snail pace the phlegmatic farmer seems
quite content. It is this willingness to
make haste slowly but surely in the race
for wealth that has made substantial
farmers of these industrious foreigners.
Here and there among the prospective
pickers are bevy of American girls,
who leave homes of comfort and plenty
to trough it f." on the marshes for a
week or two. Bands of Winnebago In
dams occasionally file past, gayly attired
in bright colored government blankets;
the lazy warriors or bucks mounted on
ponies, the squaws trudging along the
sandy roads carry the impedimenta, !"
with the papooses strapped into a
framework and borne upon the back
with the other burdens. These Indians
are the children and grandchildren of
the chiefs who fought under the famous
Blackhawk, in what is now the State of
! Wisconsin, nearly half century ago.
1t is only !; mile or two from Berlin to
the cranberry marsh of Sackett Brothers,
the presiding genius of whose fortunes
is the Hon. Hobe Sackeit. The berries
grow on a marsh which is so wet and
| yielding as to preclude the driving of
teams across except on corduroy road
half mile long leading to the buildings
in the center. Springing across one of
the bitches on either side one can pick
the acrid berries from the delicate
bushes which grow not more than a foot
in height. The principal building is the
warehouse where the berries are stored
and afterward barreled for market. 1t
is substantial frame structure, recently
built, is 148 by A feet and four stories
high. From the upper windows can be
had comprehensive view of the marsh
and its busy force of pickers. The eye
rests upon 7s0 acres of marsh, not more
than quarter of which is under cultiva-
tion, over whose area in the busy time
are scattered no less than three thousand
pickers. A movable wooden railroad
track runs from the warehouse to the
center Of operations, and car is loaded
with the boxes of berries, each person
| picking into pan which is then emptied
into box of bushel capacity. The
pickers receive ticket for every bushel
loaded on the car, and on reporting to
the superintendent at the close of the
day, receive credit for the whole. The
price paid is seventy five cents bushel,
and the average days work is not more
than two or three bushels, although it is
not uncommon to pick five bushels, and
a few experts have been known to pick
seven bushels in single day. The
picking being often hurried on account
OF threatened approach of frost. second
picking is sometimes necessary, for
which about q dollar bushel is paid.
The car on being loaded with the filed
boxes is drawn by q team of horses to
the warehouse, where the berries are
hoisted on an elevator to the upper
stories, aud disposed of in such manner
as to secure the best ventilation. The
floors are covered with tier upon tier Of
boxes of berries, there being sometimes
20, coo bushels under the roof at one
timo, On the ground floor, large fan
ming mills are in motion, into which the
berries are running from hoppers in the
upper stories, and all leaves and other
impurities are blown out, after which
they are put in barrels and hauled to
Berlin, and from there shipped to the
Milwaukee and Chicago markets. A
coopering establishment on the property
manufactures the many thousand barrels
which are annually required.
The question naturally arises, How
do these several thousand pickers sub
sist during the season, for no boarding
establishment of sufficient capacity
would be possible The answer is that
the proprietor has erected barracks OF
frame buildings for which there is no
rental, the pickers boarding themselves,
each house being furnished with Q
kitchen stove, and the rooms fitted up
with hunks. The greatest hilarity pre-
walls during picking time, the nights
being given up to innocent revelry and
mlrth on the part of the young men ant
maidens, while in the neighboring woods
the Winnebagoes dance round theil
camp fires and make night hideous will
the drunken orgies with which Gran
: berry time is invariably associated
Sackett's marsh is fitted by nature fo
' it's present use, and its advantages o
location could not have been improves
) upon by the experienced cranberry cul
turist. 1t is necessary to flood tn
s entire surface during the winter, ant
l this is rendered easy by the fact tina
the marsh is basin lying in wooode'
: tahleland. with an outlet at the lowe