Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-10-06
Is, coo BARRELS
CRANBERRIES
Is the Estimated Crop of Wood
County for This
Year.
HARVEST WILL NET OVER
100000 TO GROWERS
Now Patent That Vines Must Be
Prepared for the
Rakers.

RakerS.
The cranberry picking season in
Wood county practically closed last
week. The quantity of berries har.
vested will be about $4,000 barrels
amounting to little more than one.
half of the whole crop of the state
The amount the growers will receive
from this industry will be over
100000.
Cranberry growers plan to harvest
their crop in about two weeks, begin.
ming usually on the first Monday ia
September AS matter of fact, they
are generally disappointed in their
plan. The number of pickers they
usually get is liable to be less than
they bargained for and the frosty
nights, that compel them to flood, and
the rainy days become serious inter.
ruptions to the work. AS rule, the
whole month Of September is con
sumed in and about the work of
gathering the crop.
This year the growers began to pick
in the last days of August. The work
of picking requires no special skill,
although in this, as well as in any
other line, there is great difference
in individuals. The majority of the
pickers come from the foreign popula-
ton and native Indians. Many of the
latter drive from their reservations to
the cranberry marshes in picking
time, but of late years both the
Indians and the whites are largely
carried in by railroads on special rates
made for the cranberry growers.
Hand pickerS are growing less every
year and harder to get. The early
German and Polish settlers, that
settled inythe vicinity of the marshes.
are getting their farms SO improved
that they find it more profitable to
stay on their farmS in the fall of the
year, than they would to go out pick
ing cranberries on the marshes. The
hand picking is done almost exclu-
sively by women, boys and girls. The
men are usually employed in raking,
and can always be had in sufficient
numbers to gather the crop, where it
is possible to gather it by rakes.
1t is now patent that the cranberry
growers will have to prepare their
vines for the rakers, aud will have to
rely on rakerS hereafter for gathering
their crops.
The usual price paid to pickers is
fifty cents bushel, and a good picker
will pick about three bushels a day.
The rakers get $3.50 day and board,
and raker will gather from eight to
twelve bushels in fair average berries.
We have known rakerS in the past
season who gathered as high as twenty
nine bushels in one day, and we also
know of marsh in this county where
the rakers only averaged four bushels
day.
Some native berries have already
been sold at So. % and some fancy i'm
ported varieties at 81 per barrel. The
indications are that the prices will be
little higher than they were last
year.
Although the crop this year is not
as large as last, the quality of the
berries, both as to color and size, is
better, and the berries go into the
cranberry house this year practically
free from frozen berries. Taking
it ali in all the season has been as
successful as can be usually expected
The cultivation of cranberries in
Wood county has come to stay. 1t is
an industry that will continue tC
develop for good many years to come
Most OF the present growers went into
the business when the cultivation Of
cranberries was an experiment. They
have learned much through mistakes
and diSappointments, and the last
seven or eight years will show that
the cranberry crop is becoming more
reliable than any other fruit CROP
grown, and could be fairly said to be
even as reliable as the corn and potato
crop. With the development of othel
lands in the county, adapted to thi:
industry, the crop of the county could
be made to bring in 81 100000 a year
1t is probably best that this develop
ment be brought about slowly. 1t i,
a dangerous business for one to EN- bari
in who has had no previous training
or acquired skill. 1t costs a great
deal to make good cranberry marsh
and with the want of skill, the origina
investment is easily lost, but it is on
of Wood county's leading industries
and is deserving of as much public
attention as any other
In Louisiana is praised by the pres
4 ii l. n -,