The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-11-05

1 SNAilta thclll III with great Taplully. Bul
on the Cape proper the small growers
do not use the rake, thinking that it in
jures the plants, They have been in
use, nevertheless, eight years on the
great Dogs, with no such bad effect.
! Such fabulous earnings as 1 have
mentioned are quite uncommon, yet this
is principal source of revenue to many
| laboring families. Throughout this
section no schools are opened until the
! harvest Is over. Cranberry vacation"
soon followed the openings Of schools
in August, but now the the opening is
| deferred until the close OF the season,
for boys and girls earn their years
olothing-I wish could say their books.
| The foreigners, Portuguese and Ital-
ians, take very naturally to this labor,
and do the greater part of 1t on the
great boys. With their families and
their stuff piled in unsghtly bundles,
they board the trains and are set down
at the excellent houses which are built
| for them by the company, quite a viii
| lage on the border Of each plantation.
| Some put up shanties of their own and
spend the autumn here year after year,
i NNN'f y AtA5 away " lOIluHG VI TWO OF
| three hundred dollars.
The laws of the bog are simple, but
| obligatory. The field is lined out by
cords into sections, which are cleaned
Off in turn, at the dictation Of the SUI
| perintendents, who also keep watch of
the greedy pickers, who fill their pals
too quick and leave berries behind A
stream of workers is constantly moving
to and from the point where the tally is
taken-walking up, for the loads are
| heavy, and running back
| The margin of the boys is full of, life
| and color. Tall blue skeleton wagons
come and go with loads of yellow-pine
| boxes, making the circuit to where the
screeners stand. A simple process this
winnowing it, and then then comes bar
reling.
Further down the Cape, and there are
small boys all the way to Provincetown,
| the business assumes a more individual
character, and picking time could we'll
form the subject of summer idyll.
| All the nice people" in the street leave
| their pleasant old elm-covered houses
for the boys. One of the cranberry
| ie'A AhASAo VI l. Oh llloolli lldl NSSto bllOQ-
| sand barrels, and that employs all his
| neighbors. I wish / could say they go
for sport, but I am afraid there is too
much hard work and too much eager
| ness to make great wages for that.
| Still, it is one of the great occasions,
| second only to camp meeting, for which
| piles of doughnuts and heaps of beans
must be baked. But young men and
maidens vet know how to take advan-
| tage of it,, and Cupid is never absent
from the train. inquired in the Wan
kenco bog whether there were evening
| sports. Apparently not. If peasants
| still dance anywhere, they do not in
New England. Still little music pass
es the time; some violins among the
| Italians, on the part of the natives the
| harsh accordion.
| The cranberry is native to cold, messy
boys, such as lie on the sandy slopes Of
/ the Atlantic states and about the upper
| Great Lakes. Where cold waters flow
slowly through sands, boys arise. BY
the growth Of ages a pond fills with
vegetation and becomes a peat-bog, the
| lower vegetation decayfng under water
| Forming peat. From the tangle Of lau-
lrel, fern and sphagnum Of the surface
/ the change is gradual through dense
masses of wiry stems of true peat lying
| 20 or 80 feet below. In some of the boys
in southern New Jersey forests are bur-
| led. The bog sustains many hardy
| perennial shrubs, often heath-like
plants, with a great quantity Of whitish
| coral-like moss called sphagnum, grow
ing upward upon its decaying base.
/ This vegetation holds slow-movng wa
| ters like a. sponge, and on its upper por-
tions the cranberry, which is sort of
| heather, flourishes in company with
| sheep laurel, ferns, rushes and saplings
| The first step in cranberry tillage is to
| shave off from two to four feet of this
surface. This process, called turing
it is strictly unturfing-is followed by
drainage. bitches are dug at intervals
| of about five rods. A surface Of sand
| is next spread over the top. The white
| lifeless sand of the Massachusetts coast
seems best suited, and in this warm bed
| the cuttings are stuck, sometimes at
regular intervals sometimes sown
broadcast and narrowed under
| The first two years is struggle with
| weeds; by the third the cranberry gets
ahead and keeps so. After the third
year they come to bearing. The plant
| is one of the beautiful allies Of the
| heathers, a wiry, slender shrub, per-
ennial and trailing, but mis-called a
vine. 1t continues to bear from Is to
| 20 years, and can be moved for prun-
| ing. Cultivation consists chiefly in
protection from the frosts, and in dry
| seasons in moistening the lower part
| of the bed. This includes a system Of
| irrigating ponds, kes, gates, ETC., of
ne small extent. In vii .er the boys
are laid iund az two feet Oh wa.ar to pro
| tect the vines from BENG winter
| killed, and they become frozen lakes.
In spring they are drained. off, but
| there is anxiety until the 10th of June
| on account of the possibility of frost af-
| ter the buds are set. Small boys can be
| flooded soon enough to be protected
| against sudden frost, but this is not
practicable on the large systems, which
| depend on water several miles distant
| The initial expense, thus, of prepar-
| ing the surface, and the maintenance
| of the irrigation works call for consid-
| cradle outlay Of capital. But few in
vestments have averaged better re-
| turns. Even in less careful and expe-