The Newtown bee., 1879-01-14
HARVESTING CRANBERRIES.
Picturesque Scenes In the Grent Marsh of
 Wisconsin.

Picturesque Scenes In the Great Marsh of Berlin, Wis, says correspondent of i 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 sub- servient to this, for the harvest is of no mean importance to river town of 3, ,OC0 inhabitants; the annual shipments some times reaching the astounding figures of 35,000 bushels from the large marsh of Sackett Brothers and that of Carey Brothers, whose united annual expendi- lures are not far from $100 ,000.
 When the picking begins, in October, the whole country round turns out e7a nsasse, 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 a beyy of American girls, who leave homes of comfort and plenty to trough it " on the marshes for a week or two. Bands of Winnebago In- dians occasionally file past, gayly attired in bright colored government blankets; the lazy warriors or bucks mounted on sandy roads carry the " impedimenta," with the papooses strapped into 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.
 It is only a mile or two from Berlin to the cranberry marsh of Sackett Brothers, the presiding genius of whose fortunes is the Hon. Hobe Sacke!t. The berries grow on a marsh which is so wet and yielding as to preclude the driving of teams across except on a corduroy road half 8 mile long leading to the buildings iaa bino ooaator. GprsnSsrae oo~o-o aac-vf the ditches on either side one can pick the acrid berries from the delicate bushes which grow not more than foot ill height. The principal building is the warehouse where the berries are stored and afterward barreled for market. It 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 it's busy force of pickers. The eye rests upon 750 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 8 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
 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 dollar bushel is paid.
 The car on being loaded with the filled
 boxes is drawn by team of horses to
 the warehouse, where the berries are hoisted on an elevator to the upper stories, and 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 1000 bushels under the roof at one time. 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 l impurities are blown out, after which l they are put in barrels and hauled to
 Berlin, and from there shipped to the l Milwaukee and Chicago markets. A
 coopering establishment on the property
 manufactures the many thousand barrels
 which are annually required.
 l 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 or l frame buildings for which there is no
 rental, the pickers boarding themselves, each house being furnished with g l kitchen stove, and the rooms fitted up
 with hunks. The greatest hilarity pre- vails during picking time, the nights being given up to innocent revelry and mlrth on the part of the young men and
 maidens, while in the neighboring woods 1 the Winnebagoes daDce round their
 camp fires and make night hideous with the drunken orgies with which cran-
 berry time is invariably associated.
 Sackett's marsh is fitted by nature for l it's present use, and it's advantages of location could not have been improved l upon by the experienced cranberry cul- turist. It is necessary to flood 1.-the
 entire surface during the winter, and
 this is rendered easy by the fact that 1 the marsh is basin lying in wooded
 tableland, with an outlet at the lower
 end, across which has been constructed
 g dam 225 yards long and four and a l half feet high, with double foodgates for regulating the height of the overdow.
 As soon as the crop is gathered the gates are dropped and the marsh gradu- ally becomes submerged by the autumn
 rains, the melting snowe and the drain-
 age from the higher ground until II be- comes lake. This often freexes to .