The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-15
CRANBERRY GROWING IS
 A CAPE COD INDUSTRY

DLYMoUTH' Mass, october It always amuses me when l am in
 Florida or in Washington in the winter said veteran cranberry grower
 the other day, ito draw out people or
 other sections on the subject of cranper-
 ries. I find that many very intelligent people fancy that they are raised on
 shrubs or even on trees and picked pret-
 ty much as cherries or blaekberries are.
 Some of the people l meet are cautious
 and will not commit themselves, but oth- ! CTS are quite naive in their ignorance
 and willingness to display it."
 Spending the summer on Cape Cod has of late become so universal that it might be expected that the sight of cranberry bogs, purple and pink and green with
 running vines of the vaccinium macro- carpon must have become familiar to a
 considerable portion of the population of the United States. Those certainly
 who finger on into autumn-the best time
 of year in the Pilgrims country, as 1t IS
 in most places along the Atlantic sea
 board-are also accustomed to the spec
 tacle of cosmopolitan gangs Of piekers' Portuguese French Canadians, Flnns, Poles, Swedes, Italians and occasionally a native Yankee in an ever-advanc1ng line eating their way across the meadow. and to the animated scenes at the screen house where the reddening fruits are sorted into the different grades and care fully boxed to make their Journey over the New Haven lines to every quarter or the United States where Thanksgiving turkeys demand an accompaniment or cranberry sauce.
 Even if ignorance of the cranberry
 habits is as widespread as the grower has found appreciation of the qualities of the fruit itself grows more live and active each year, until the question that is most frequently asked hereaboutS Is Where is the supply of the future to come from?" Already 1t is doubtful this year
 if the eastern Thanksgiving tables will
 not gleam but sparsely with the glorious
 red sauce for hardly had the pickers be-
 gun work when the adroit western buy CTS were on the scene riding out In every direction from their headquarters in Wareham, examining the bogs crltl- cally and making their offers before the fruit men of Boston and New fork were aware what was going on heir pio | eressiyeness is in line Wl'h eno aao | renuirements. Last year nearly 'oo'ooo barrels were more widely distrlputea tnan | ever before, nuHuItuS oi l ing everywhere. The tendency ID o and more toward the
 i the berry. 1, - So that it is no wonder Cape Cod grows rich and prosperous and that every dVaii- able acre of bog is being takeii up' ioi no other region of the Onlted o'a.es ID euitad bv climate for production or the herries on a large scale. Not every iand- ovner can get into this industry without outside help. Large capital Is needed to develop a cranberry property, but once ii has begun to bear the returns are sure, | given the three essentials of peat, sand 1 and dowage The cranberry grower Is more independent of the yicissitudes or nature than almost anybody else In the world A crop on a properly constructed | hog cannot be destroyed either by frost | pr by worms if intelligent care Is used, l for when the danger of either occurs the | vatchful manager has only to turn the water from the reservoir into the mead | ow and thereby submerges the plants Tor | their own salvation.
 | This is, in fact, one of the most sur | prising features of the industry, the l scientific precision with which 1t has | been developed There are cranberry l meadows in some districts where the | vines are allowed to take care of them- | selves, subject only to natural fowage, | and exposed to the September frosts. Not | so on Cape Cod On such property as I that of big cranberry company, Which l has under construction at North Bux- bury the largest bog under single flow | age in the world, on any September even | ing when the approach of frost is sus- pected the manager opens the gates or