The morning call., 1890-11-23
A CRANBERRY BOG.
The Picking Time Is a Sort of a
Long and Happy Picnic for All.

The largest cultivated bog in existence
lies about six miles north of Wareham. This
bog is 100 acres in extent Other boys III the
vicinity belong to the same management.
These Dogs are all as clean as the tdleSt
garden. The long and level stretches, like
carpet strewn with white and crimson
beads, are a most pleasing and novel sight.
Here in early September thousand pickerS
camp about the swamrs. some in temporary
board cabins, but most of them in tents.
The management furnishes the provisions,
which the campers cook for themselves,
and he rents them the tents. One hun
bred and twenty pickers constitute a COM
pany, which is placed in charge of an over
seer, and each company has book-keeper.
Each picker is assigned strip about three
feet wide across section of the bog, and he
is obliged to-pirk it clean as he goes. The
pickers are paid by the measure, which is a
bread siX-Quart pail with ridges marking
the quarts. Ten cents is paid for meas
ure. There is a wide variation III the guam
tity which picker will gather In day,
ranging all the way from ten measures for
a slow picker to forty and even fifty t0r
rapid one, and in extra good picking seventy
five measures have been secured.
Various devices have been contrlyed for
facilitating cranberry picking. The Cape
Cod growers like the Lumbert picker best.
This is essentially a m0usetTap-like buX
The operator thrusts the picker forward INTO
the vines, closes the lid by bearing down
with his thumb, and then draws the imple
meut backward so as to pull OF the berries.
Perhaps fourth of the pickers use the iA--
elements. Children are not strong enough
to handle them. continuously, and where the
crop is thin they possess little advantage.
Raking off the berries is rarely practiced in
Cape Cod region. 1t is rough operation
and it tears the vines badly. Late In the
foil If ripliuO has hppn DELAYED and tTOSt IL
expected or pckers are scarce, the rake is
sometimes used. An ordinary steel garden
rake is employed. The berries are raked off
the vines, and the bog may then be Hooded
and the berries are carried to the hume,
where they are secured.
This picking time Is a sort of long and
happy picnic-an the happier for bring
busy one. The pickers look forward 10 it
from year to year and are mylgUrated by
the change and the novelty.
The berries must now be sorted and
screened" If there are no uusound ber-
ries the fruit can be fairly well cleaned by
running it through fanning-mill; anu
some growers find it an advantage 10 put
all the berries through the mill before they
60 to the hand-screeners. A screen Is
Slated tray about six feet long and three
aud half wide at one end and tapering to
apout ten inches at the other. with side or
border five or six inches high. The spaces
in the bottom between the Stats are about
a fourth of an inch wide. The screen is set
upon sawhOrSes, and three women stand
upon side and handle over the berries, re-
moving the poor ones and the leaves and
sticks ana working the good ones toward the
small and open end, where they fall into
receptacle. The berries are barreled d.
directly If they are not moist. but il wet
they are first spread upon sheets of canvas
old sails being favorites-and allowed to re-
main until thoroughly dry.-Garden and
Forest,