Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-29
GRAN BERRY SEASON
Red and Fresh From Marshes
of Cape Cod.
CONS MPTION HER E
TAKES 5000 BARRELS TO SERVE
THE CAPITAL.
What It Costs to Plant Bog and How
the Crop is Gath
CONS UMPTION HER

Cranberries, red and fresh from the
marshes of Cape Cod and Jersey, are now
to be found in the market stalls and gro
Gerry stores. In the wholesale district crates
and barrels of the luscious fruit are stacked
up high waiting purchasers and this fore
runner of the Thanksgiving turkey has be-
come product of Importance in the pro-
vision trade of Washington. From now un-
til the late spring cranberry sauce will be
an appetizing dish on restaurant and hotel
menus, and will appear at intervals on the
tables of most families in the capital city.
Long standing custom DEGREES that roast
turkey shall be served with cranberries,
and it is often a side dish with other
meals 'Skillful cooks make this fruit into
jelly and numerous savory desserts to
tempt the palate and clear the blood of him
who partakes for be it known that the
cranberry is one of the most health giving
fruits that form the multplex food of man
in these modern days
Amount Consumed Here.
The estimates of four commission mer-
chants were sought as to the amount of
cranberries annually consumed in Wash
ington They practically agreed on 5000
barrels for the season, beginning in Octo-
Der and ending in March. The Washing
ton market is supplied from the jobbing
houses of Philadelphia and New York at
an average price of S. a barrel. This g yes
an outside cost to the wholesaler of $4,000
a year for cranberries.
Commission merchants in B street and
Louisiana avenue supply the retail trade,
and the average price to the consumer is
10 cents quart. Each barrel contains 1OJ
quarts, so that Washingtonians pay an
nually the snug sum of $4,000 for this
fruit But this is not all. The cranberry
is sour, and to make the sauce palatable
about three-fourths of a pound of sugar is
required with each quart of berries. In
round numbers, 22J, 900 pounds of sugar are
required for sweetening. This at 515 cents
a pound costs $12,3 making a total ex-
pense of $i2,3i5 for this savory dish
Barrels of the Sauce.
A quart of cranberries, plus three-fourths
of pound of sugar, plus quart of water,
after cooking, makes one and half quarts
of cranberry sauce. This Invested of the
hulls and boiled into jelly makes some
thing less than a quart. Washington peo-
pie, therefore, consume about 100000
quarts of sauce, or a trifie over 362S bar
rels.
Loading the barrels upon wagons, six to
each load, and procession of 600 teams
could be formed, extending down the ave-
nue. three-fourths of it's length.
The first cranberrieS brought to the Wash
fngton market are those gathered on the
marshes of Cape Cod, where their culture
is carried on extensively. This supply is
shipped mostly in crates of thirty-two
quarts each, and reaches the city in the
month of October. These are the small,
deep red berry, so highly priced by many
buyers. Early in November the product
from the New Jersey and Long Island
swamps arrive, and for three months the
cranberry trade is brisk.
Cranberries are cultivated to some extent
in several of the northern states. Large
quantities of them are grown In Michigan,
product of these states finds market in
Chicago, Detroit Cleveland and Milwaukee.
Kansas City is also distributing center for
the berries grown in the west.
Yield Light This Year.
1t is stated on good authority that there
will not be so big yield of cranberries this
year as last. Whether this is due to the
conservatism in business, supposed to be at
tendant upon the presidential campaign,
may be matter of doubt, but the growers
who picked 100000 bushels in 1903 are
gathering only 1,062,JO0 this year.
While the cranberry grows wild from the
Canadian border to Virginia and North
Carolina, its cultivation as profitable crop
Is limited to small areas, where soil and
climate are specially adapted to IT, Inc
vine is hard shrub, with strong roots
va
which the berries grow. 1t Is known 10
botanists as the vacnium macrocarpon, the
fruit maturing on the upright SHOOTS OF the
previous years growth.
The fruit takes it's name from the pecu-
liar resemblance which the flower bears to
the head and neck of the crane. Its name.
"craneberry," has been contracted into
Cranberry" Marsh ground with suDsoll
of sand is the proper place for cranberry
bog. 1t must be low. as to be kept under
water for a good part of the year. by
system of bitches and sluices the hooding
NAV be done at will, and skill in irrlgatng
the bog is the chief secret OF successiui cui-
ture.
First Cost is Large.
The first cost of preparing the bog and
n,anting amounts to something like $500 an
acre, and a period of five years must elapse
between the time of setting out the vines
and that of the first profitable picking.
This is a long time to wait for return upon
so large an investment, and is that which
deters many from embarking in the culture
of cranberrics. Once started, however, tne
bog becomes a source of increasing proHt
under careful management. All that Is re-
uuired is wedding, sanding and wise Hood
ing.
Picking cranberres requires degree OF
skill and iron endurance. The picker SITS
or knees on the damp sand. plunges Dotn
hands among the vines, with fingers spread
and hooked upward, and strips on the Der
ries. Good workers can pick sixty or eighty
quarts in a day. Yankee ingenuity long ago
produced the scoop or rake. fitted with
wooden teeth, which tears the fruit from
the vines and greatly expedites the work
of picking. Some of the growers prefer
hand pickers, on the ground that the scoop
bruises the berries and Injuries the product
for market.
Winnowing the Berries.
Before being Grated or placed in barrels
the fruit is "winnowed' in a separating ma
chine, which grades the berries, at the same
time removing dirt, pieces of leaves and
grass.
Cranberries keep we'll in storage, and
though picked in the month of September
usually they are fresh and good through
out the winter. Some growers keep choice
berries in stock until February March
and realize high prices for them, often as
much as SIS a barrel.
Cranberry farming. though a source OF
large revenue to those who succeed, is not
get-rich-quick project. 1t is only by at
tention in the strictest sense to scientific
principles that the bog can be made remu-
nerative. Growers sometimes refer to 1t as
"a young mans business" meaning that
an energetic youth by planting a marsh
may have a good business by middle age
Fortunes have been sunk by seeking tC
IL.