Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1903-11-19
HODTHT 1lD
The Ideal Cranberry Bog.

The Ideal Cranberry Bog.
81 much has been said of bog con-
dltions, and bog conditions so greatly
influence the abundance of injurious
species OF insects, that 1t may not be
out of place to describe briefly what
bog should be to make insect control
easy and certain, says bulletin ITS OF
the Department Of Agriculture.
ID The bog should be as nearly
level as It can be made, so as to re-
quire the least possible amount OF
water to flow it. A bog that can be
completely covered by a 12inch head
Is better than one that requires "a,
and when the difference in level Of an
area is 5 or 6 feet or more 1t is better
to make the Dogs ont Of 1t. that the
lower may be refiowed from the upper
and less than half the amount OF
water be required.
(2) Make no one bog so large that
more than thirty-six hours are required
to cover completely. and no more than
twenty-four hours are required to draw
the ditch level.
(3) Build reservoir or reserve
flooded area above the level of the
highest bog Of a series sufficient to
hold water enough to flow at least the
highest bog completely. The i'm
portance of this requirement is 80
fully appreciated that miles Of bitches
have been dug in New Jersey to tap
streams at higher level, and many
acres of swamp area have been Gre
ated by raising contour lines to deepen
natural basins. In Massachusetts, pow
erful pumps have been installed to
pour water directly upon the bog or
into reservoir above It.
"a Adjust bog levels SO that the
upper one of the series can be com
pletely emptied into the one below.
and yet have the gates and outlets so
adjusted that any one bog may be COM
pletely emptied without interfering
with either those above or below. 1t
happens not infrequently that one bog
needs cleaning or other attention while
others do not.
(0) There should be broad. deep,
marginal ditch between the dam and
the bog or between the bog and up
land, and this ditch should be always
clean and at least partly full Of water.
Many kinds of insects can be alto
gether kept from the boys in this way,
while grasshoppers and other insects
are delayed until they can fly. Then
they are feeling on other things, and
they do not often change the food hab-
its of their early life.
(6) The dams and the edges of the
uplands should be kept as free as pos
sible from vegetation that harbors
cranberry-feeding species. Cranberry
vines should not be tolerated for an
instant. Huckleberry bushes are al
most as bad, and these should be
cleared back for some distance where
bog and upland Join without an in
tervening dam. Other heath plants
are also undesirable and should not
be allowed too near the boys nor on
the dams.
Cd 1t follows from what has been
said that bog itself should be kept as
free as possible from all plants other
than vines, certain grasses being espe-
cially Objectionable because they are
used by long-horned grasshoppers as
places to lay their eggs.
Boys so arranged could be kept COM
pletely safe at all times, and once
properly laid out would require little
outlay to keep them so.
The important advantages are that
neither insecticides nor spraying ma
chinery would ever be required, and
the insect problem WOULD be reduced
to the simplest possible terms.