The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-08
|CRANBERRIES READY.
bio Bo0s ARE NOW THE SCENES
 or MUCH ACTIVITY.
Citp of Red Berries is Ripe and the 1ickers Are Busy-Marshy Land Home of Famous Turkey
 Accompaniment.

ry until Thanksgiving, just now the sea- son for It's harvesting Is at its height tn this section of the country.
 Cranberry culture is the greatest gam
 ble in the entire fruit industry. In a successful year a good bog in this re- zion often nets the grower 20 per cent. on his investment. But the very next season he may lose his entire crop. There are several stealthy and potent enemies ever plotting to ambush him in the dark shadows of the surrounding fastness. The most formidable of these Is Jack Frost. Wherever fall his hoary tracks the glistening waxy fruit Is blighted. And Dame Nature,- as though designing to aid this destructive ogre, has so en- sineered matters that the cranberry does not blush into ripeness until just before the autumnal frosts. Hence arm les of men. women and children are now invading this center of i's cultivation endeavoring to capture the precious fruit before 1t can fall into the clutches of the unsparing foe.
 Method of Starting Bogs.
 A new bog is almost always establish ed by planting cuttings. Portions of shoots ten or fifteen inches long and freshly cut from mature bog are sepa- rated into wisps of from eight to fifteen separate stems. These wisps are placed in rows upon the sand. Women. paid cents day, walk over the rows and force each cutting into the sand with a wedge shaped rod. new bog thus planted will commence to yield well in four or five years. It will never die out, if properly cleaned and protected.
 After the last picking and throughout the weeks of autumn. winter and spring. In which frosts and freezes are likely to occur, each cranberry bog is kept flooded. The presence of water not only protects the plants and fruit from the froat and ice. but in the spring retards the bloom until the danger of late frosts has passed. It also shields the plants | against the depredations of certain in- sects. prevents blights and some fungus diseases. But after the winters icc has | adhered to- the vines any inflow of water which may raise its surface will take the plants with it and prove disastrous
 to the bog. Just now, in the picking | season. the careful grower keeps his | weather eye upon his thermometer and should the mercury drop to a degree | threatening frost the floodgates of the | bog are closed and a film of water made | to creep up over the vines. Such flood | ing. of course. retards picking. and in asmuch as the harvesting is being push | ed in order that every bit of fruit may
 be gathered before the settled season of frost there Is always a hesitation wheth- I UT tAc 1ToSt Oo TlSkou m OTQer 10 hasten the picking. It Is right here that the
 successful grower shows his fine dis l crimination.
 The Labor Problem.
 The labor problem is troubling the | cranberry grower this year more than
 ever before. The usual picker cannot q | tempted to turn out in half his usual l hordes and 1t Is found that hitherto in l dustrious yeomen of the soil, hewers of
 wood and drawers of water, natives of
 the forest, are not even encouraging their
 sonS and daughters to make their usual
 pin money this season Race suicide not l being a weakness among these foreigners in fact, the fecundity among them Is | amazing-a single household turned out | upon the bogs can reap pretty sum in
 day. 5ut this season their daughters l find time for their daily siestae. Their
 sons sit about and whittle while the ex- l asperated grower keeps the wires hot | with applications for more Italian labor.
 But even the male Italian picker Is now 1 scarce. He prefers regular employment
 upon the railroads and other construc- l ton works at from $1.40 to $1.50 a day
 and there is plenty of such labor now to
 be performed. Thus most of the pickers
 this year are women and children. They
 operate in the field under the command | of row bosses" each of whom starts
 his squad in straight lines across the
 bog. Every picker, after having been
 assigned to his row, must pick 1t clean
 or suffer the discipline of the boss-us-
 ually babble of curses in cadence with
 vigorous gesticulations of head and | limb
 But. all told. these p:ckers are the
 happiest laborers who ever worked. They
 seem to regard their task as a jolly out l ing. As they proceed slowly on their | Euaesa ocr01a the meadows the hreaze. waits to the ears of spectators along the | forest edges a sweet, mellow harmony of choral song instinctive only among
 I.atins. It is a sight for Millais-these dreamy-eyed girls of Italy, their abundant
 black locks crowned with gaudy ban danas: these mature peasant women, spangled with long. dangling earrings; these olive-skinned boys with bright colored caps and neckerchiefs.
 Italians Hauled In.
 The Italian pickers are hauled from the cities sometimes in special trains and live
 in a sort of gypsy fashion in the shanties surrounding the bog. These foreign pickers form themselves in long column of twos at the command of the head boss and proceed to march to the bog. | Here they are assigned to their rows in
 the section where the previous days | harvest had been interrupted by darkness. Each picker with a square, black peck measure held before him clasps group after group of vines between his hands. joins his finger ends and combs out the abundant friu. His peck measure being | filled. he carries 1t to a long line of crates at the bogs edge, where one employe of | the grower pours out the berries and
 other. standing before a tin strong box. hands him a red ticket god for 10 cents at the cashing-in time. Each measure
 undergoes a strict inspection. pckers who bring grass. leaves or stems in their
 boxes being reprimanded or sent back to add sufficient of the fruit to compensate.
 About the ticket giver is constantly jab- bering. gesticulationg and grinning group. wing for the chance to pebble a rhythm of words which fall in vain upon his ear. After being filled each row of crates is lifted upon an open wagon and hauled to storage house.
 In the storehouse a man turns the crank of q machine which fans, cleans and as sorts the fruit. distributing 1t among three crates placed beneath. In one fall the largest and soundest berries; in an- other these of medium in the third the
 few injured or decayed. The principle of this ingenious mechanism is that the soundest berry when dropped from the
 feeder bounces to the farthest crate and vice versa. But there Is little use for this mechanism until frost sets in or un- less part of the fruit hns suffered from
 scald. The cranberry of this region be- ing unusually sound and hearty. it is usually accepted in the rough" by the trade
 Reddens After Picking.
 The cranberry is very nearly white dur ing the early picking but gradually red