The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-01-11

| OF TIE Dog with numerous side branches
which drain into it, 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
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
a depth of four inches, the wetter por-
tons requiring more than this. The bog
/ Is now ready 10 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
punch, which somewhat resembles a
dagger, having a fiat blade 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 $500 per acre before the vines are
set. These cost s. for a quantity
sufficient for an acre, aud the expense Of
setting them is 10 cents per rod, or SIG
per acre. All of the turing, ditching,
stumping and 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 few berries in their
second year, but the crop is rarely picked.
As the vines spread they form a thick
carpet, completely 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
1saiaEI neztad tiosgef. j szthe herr
1t hangs on 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 e-eighth inch broad, are
so plentiful as TO hide the greater por-
ton of the crop.
Cranberries are u 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 off 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
the cranberry district the
of frost within twenty-four
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 go, for each child can make
from s to $3.50 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
well built, close by the bog, and each
party has cook. Beds are made like
those on a Steamship 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 $50 to
400 pickers, and even such an army as
that makes but small show on some of {
the largest boys. Before work is begun
he Superintendent ''lines" the bog.
which consists 10 stretching white cords {
across 1t in parallel lines about six feet S
apart, each picker being given a space,
which must be picked clean. The piekers
creep on hands and knees over the vines,
picking as they go. They are divided
into companies, each appropriately let !
tered, and each individual numbered. {
When picker has filled his measure he '
starts for his barrel to deposit his fruit,
1t the same time calling out his number {
md company letter to the book keeper.
who, tablet and pencil in hand, sits near {
he barrels and credits the picker with
me measure by drawing 4 straight line {
jeslde his name. The marks are counted {
It the close of the day and then trans {
erred to the regular account books.
Each measure holds about SIX quarts. ,
t requiring sixteen measures to fill a ,
'arrel of 100 quarts. The pickers get
en- cents per quart, and there is much
lyalry among them as to who can score
he greatest number of measures in n
lay. Last season one man picked eighty I
measures full, or thirteen bushels Of ,
IN ten hours, making IS for
us days work All nationalities are {
epresented on bog, and the different {
actions generally get along very ami s
ably They are too busy to do other
wise. '
a picking machine has been invented c
nd Is in limited use, but does not find c
luch favor with growers, who say it d
ears the vines The most successful t
ne Is made with a row of fingers to slide Il
yer the vine, and cover which shuts
own over them A BACKWARD pull dis
ngages the berries and moves the ma
hine off the vine. Il
The berries are taken to the screen h
ouse from the bog, and are there run /
trough a screen, where all rotten, white q
r otherwise imperfect ones are remoy ed. y,
hey are next barreled and shipped to :.
larket, New York being the principal -
ne, with Philadelphia next, while Bos- =,
IN is reckoned among the minor ones. :,
he demand for the berry IS growing =
and even now exceeds tho T.
1pply Of choice fruit. What this de- Il
and is will be better understood when IL L,
is known that the plant is so prolific .,
lat yields as high as hundred barrels n
Or acre are not uncommon. 3
g.