The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-11-21
CRANBERRIES.
HOW THE LITTLE BERRY is
RAISED ON CAPE COD.
Tho Construction and Cost Of a
Bog Setting the Vines
When and How the
Crop is Harvested.

The Boston Herald, describing cram
berry culture in Cape Cod, says: Usually
there are three years of constant expense
to a bog before any income is derived
from it, and three years seem long when
one thinks of the capital invested.
Meanwhile ice, frosts, droughts, fire or
worms may destroy the crop, and nearly
| everything must be done over again,
while weeds must be fought perpetually
In making bog piece OF wild swamp
| land is selected. The conditions to be
observed are that it must have a good
quality of muck for a bottom, with an
abundant supply of water for tlowage,
and also good facilities for drainage.
The cranberry, although water vine,
seems to want only moderate amount
of moisture while growing and bearing.
There must also be an ample supply OF
sand at hand.
The first step in construction is cut
ting the trees and moving down the
bushes with a stub scythe. These are
heaped up and burned. Following this
is the "turfng" process, wherein the
entire surface of the bog is cut into
squares by turf axes.
Next the stumps are removed, and
then comes the process of ditching.
The usual method on large bogs is to
have one large ditch through the middle
of the bog with numerous side branches
which drain into il, keeping the bog
comparatively dry in summer, while on
the approach of frost in the fall the flow
of water is stopped, and all the available
supply turned upon the bog TO cover and
protect the vines and fruit from Jack
Frost's nipping fingers. To facilitate
flowing the bog is made as nearly as
practicable one vast level, or only rises
a few inches at the most. The next step
after grading is to sand it, and for this
purpose the sand must be coarse and
gravelly. The bog is usually covered to
depth of four inches, the wetter por-
tions requiring more than this. The bog
is now ready to set with vines, which
must be brought from some older bog,
and consist now of three leading varieties
Roots are never set, but cuttings are
used exclusively. An instrument called
! a punch, which somewhat re sembles a
dagger, having a fiat blade II inches
wide, is used to open the soil. The shoot
or cutting is stuck into the cleft. and
the earth crowded down around it..
Eighteen inches space is left on all sides
of each plant.
A completed bog will average in cost,
aside from the first price of the land,
about $4O0 per acre before the vines are
set. These cost s. for a quantity
sufficient for an acre, and the expense of
setting them is 10 cents per rod, or $l6
per acre. All of the turing, ditching,
stumping aud sanding are done by the
square rod, and all OF it has to be done
by hand, for the swamp is unsuitable
footing for horses.
Having completed the bog, the next
thing is to fight the weeds and replace
any vines which may have failed to take
root. The Little stalk, which is about as
large as the lead of pencil, puts out
runners in all directions and continues
to grow until the third year, when a
crop can be expected with some certainty.
Vines often bear a few berries in their
second year, but the crop is rarely picked.
I As the vines spread they form thick
carpet, completely ly hiding the bog and
covering it to depth of six or eight
inches The runners each vine puts out
are several feet loug and interlace with
one another. These runners put out
small shoots called "uprights," and on
these in the spring appears tie little
four parted flower. AS the berry ripens,
it hangs on a stem an inch long and is
completely hidden by the vine leaves,
which alternate on either side of the
stem, and, although only one quarter
inch long and one eighth inch broad, are
SO plentiful as to hide the greater por.
tion of the crop.
Cranberries are a crop which cannot
wait, but must be harvested at once
when ripe, or the frost will spoil them
by softening the berries and causing
them to drop OF the vines. This can be
prevented by flowing the bog, if sufficient
warning is given beforehand; and here
is where the signal service is doing ex-
cellent wo k by telegraphing daily
+ throughout the cranberry district the
probability of frost within twenty-foul
hours.
With the coming of the middle OF
September the cars going toward the
Cranberry district are crowded with
people bound for the harvest. Whole
families 90, for each child can make
from 81 to 50. so daily, and many poor
families can make enough in the four or
five weeks season to keep them COM
fortably all winter. Carver then doubles
its population. The pickers are quar-.
tered in small frame houses, snugly and
we'll built, close by the bog, and each
party has cook. Beds are made like
those on q steamship-a series of berths
on the side of the rooms. The men all
sleep in one apartment, and the women
| in another. A days work usually means
ten hours, but if the morning is rainy
picking does not begin until the vines
are dry, for the fruit must be perfectly
| dry when barreled, or it will soon spoil.
A large bog will employ from l5O tc
400 pickers, and even such an army as
| that makes but small show on some o
the largest bogs. Before work is begun
the Superintendent ''lines" the bog
which consists in stretching white cord:
across it in parallel lines about six fee
apart, each picker being given a space
! which must be picked clean. The picker:
creep on hands and knees over the vines
picking as they 60. They are divided
into companies, each appropriately let
tered, and each individual numbered
When picker has filled his measure h'
starts for his barrel to deposit his fruit
at the same time calling out his number
and company letter to the book keeper