Los Angeles herald., 1905-11-05
Cape Cod, Land
of CranberrieS

| f<D USY as a cranberry merchants
X Is a proverb or saying which
must have been written just
about this time o. year. For right now,
over on the other edge of the American
continent no one in the world is busier.
The coming of Thanksgiving with its
traditional turkey and cranberry sauce
Is in sight and the harvest of the car
dinal berries that make possible this
brilliant touch of color in the feast, Is
now on in full blast
| 1T always amuses me when I
am in California or in Wash
| ngton in the winter" said a veteran
cranberry grower the other day. "to
draw out people of other regions on the
subject of cranberries. find that many
very intelligent people fancy they are
raised on shrubs or even on trees and
picked pretty much as cherries or black
| berries are. Some of the people meet
are cautious and will not commit them
Selves but others are quite naive IN
their ignorance and Willingness to dis
play it."
Summering on Cape Cod has of late
become so universal that 1t might be
expected the sight of cranberry bogs,
purple and pink and green with run
ming vines of the Vaccinium macocar-
pom must have become familiar to a
considerable portion of the population
of the United States. Those certainly
who linger on into autumn-the best
time of the year in the Pilgrims coun-
try, as 1t is in most places along the
Atlantic seaboard-are also accustomed
to the spectacle of cosmopolitan gangs
of pickers, Portuguese, French Canad-
ians, Finns Poles, Swedes, Italians and
occasionally native Yankee, in an
| Il t,nfro lima hair xxtoty
across the meadow, and to the ami
mated scenes at the screen house where
the reddening fruits are sorted into the
different grades and carefully boxed to
make their journey over the New
Haven lines to every quarter of the
United States where Thanksgiving
turkey demands an accompaniment of
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 hereabout 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 begun work when the adroit
| western buyers were on the scene, rid
ing out in every direction from their
| headquarters in Wareham, examining
the bogs critically and making their
offers before the fruit men of Boston
and New York were aware what was
going on. Their progressiveness is in
line with recent requirements. Last
year, nearly 100000 barrels were more
widely distributed than ever before,
hundred of carloads going everywhere.
The tendency is more and more toward
the naturalization of the berry.
So that ii is no wonder Cape Cod
| grows rich and prosperous and that
every available acre of bog Is being
taken up, for no other region of the
United States Is suited by climate for
production of the berries ON large
scale. Not every land owner can get
into this industry without outside help.
This is, in fact, one of the most SUR
prising features of the industry, the
scientific precision with which 1t has
been developed. There are cranberry
meadows in some districts where the
vines are allowed to take care of them
selves, subject otly to natural fiowage,
and exposed to the September frosts.
| Not so on Cape Cod on such prop
erty as that of big cranberry COM
pany which has under construction at
North Duxbury the largest bog under
a single fiowage in the world. on any
September evening when the approach
of frost is suspected, the manager opens
the gates of the three great reservoirs
of 40, 25 and 25 acres respectively,
where millions of gallons of water are
held at levels a few feet above the
meadows and rapidly floods the dikes
until the water warmer than the air,
percolating among the roots, and keeps
vapor to rise that enwraps the berries
as i'm a protecting shroud. and keeps
them safe from the nipping fingers Of
the frost king.