Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-20
SAUCE FOR THE TURKEY
How Cranberries Are Raised and Preuared
for Market.
Picked by Hand, Sorted by Machinery
and Transported I'm Cold
Storage Cars.
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
| Turkey and cranberry sauce! By force
| OF long association and the eternal fitness
of things, the two go naturally together
What is one without the other or Thanks
giving day without both? And so to make
| the 100000 turkeys required for the ma
tional feast more palatable $4,000 barrels
| of cranberrles are raised on the marshes of
Cape Cod and New Jersey. To be sure not
all OF these are eaten on Thanksgiving day.
| but fairly large proportion of them are,
and it is the almost universal use of the
| tart little berry on Thanksgiving that has
| led to the present wonderful extension of
| the business
The business of raising cranberries is
peculiar one in all its aspects. 1t requires
| special kind of ground, considerable capt.
tai and a vast deal of labor. and it is a spe-
cal trade, more or less irregular in its re-
turns, like all of its kind. 1t is the chief
Industry of two sections of this country
where nearly all the cranberries used in
America and Europe are raised, and which
i has transformed from waste bog lands
,-ito rich farming communities.
The land on which cranberries will flour
| ism Is seldom fit for anything else In the
state in which it is usually found it re-
quires about $500 per acre to make 1t fit, so
| that the transformation of a swamp into
productive cranberry bog makes it a very
valuable piece of property. The first re-
quirement is a peat bottom. This is dressed
by spreading over it a coating of seashore
sand, into which the slips are stuck and
left to grow at their sweet will. In
connection with the bog there should be
an irrigating ditch or a reservoir from
| which ii can be flooded at any time. 1t re-
qulreS several years to determine the
worth of a marsh for producing cranberries
and the slowness of returns, together with
the amount of capital required, have
brought all the largest marshes into the
control OF stock companies.
How Cranberries Are Raised.
1t requires land labor throughout to
| raise cranberres. The chief expense once
| the crop is started is in the picking, which
is largely performed by women and chill
dren, who receive from one to one and a
half cents per quart for the work, and are
able to earn from IS cents to 81 per day
through the season. The experienced picker
works on her knees, unmindful of the wet
moss, which soaks her garments. She
thrusts her hands through the moss and
vines, lifting up the whole mass and rapid
ly stripping off the berries with a deXterous
movement acquired by much practice The
sight of long line of men and women
half hundred in a group making their
way on hands and knees across the level
field is picturesque in the extreme, an effect
heightened by the tattered and variegated
attire of the workers.
AS fast the berries are gathered by
the pickers they are measured out by the
boss" and unless they are to go at once
to market are packed away in boxes for
storage This packing is done in what is
called ''chaff," the moss and leaves picked
up in the field, in boxes with SLATED sides
to allow free circulation of the air. In
caying. and will keep for a long time.
When the berries are to be marketed
they are screened. The screen is like an
old-fashioned tanning mill and serves the
COuhln ranlnyiDo ha haf nd
sorting the berries. Beneath the hopper
into which the berries are poured a
number of steps leading down like flight
OF stairs, with openings between them. The
chaff is blown out at the side, and, as the
berries fall from the hopper, they bound
from one step to another until they reach
the bottom, where they fall into receptacles
placed there to receive them. The hardest
berries will bound mere than the others
and run the whole course of the steps, fall
ing into the last box, while the softer ones
drop through the nearer spaces, and in this
way the berries are easily graded. The
softer ones are shipped to the nearest
markets for immediate sale, and the hard
est ones are sent abroad or to distant
points.
Cranberry Bricks.
England takes thousands of barrels of
American cranberries every year. and the
west has become a great market for them
on account of the scarcity of other small
fruits. At present more cranberries are sold
in Chicago than in New York or any other |
eastern city. |
Cranberries are not injured by freezing, I
and SO 1t is an easy matter to ship them in |
cold weather. They are often sent as far |
Manitoba in ordinary open box cars. |
When they arrive they are frozen into |
solid blocks of dee. The sides of the cases |
are knocked off and the berries are exposed |
in a solid mass, like cakes Of ice, except |
that they are much more beautiful from |
their rich red color. They are chopped off |
exactly like ice, and the citizen of Winnipeg
is so accustomed to buying his cranberries
en- bloc that he doesn't mind in the least
though an fastener would probably object |
to taking them in that way, thinking in
his prejudiced mind, that the berries are /
spoiled.