El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-11-19
SOME CRANbERR|ES FOR THANKSGIVING
SOME DAY BEFORE VERY LONG WE MAY HAVE
A NEW KIND.
There Is Superior European Variety Which the Plant
Bureau Would Like to Introduce Smaller and
Sweeter Than Ours-How One Legged
Man Invented Cranberry Culture.

Washington, D. c.. Nov 1'9-Dr. Da-
| vid Fairchild, who manages the bust
ness of introducing new plants into
this country, is disposed to favor the
! experimental planting of the European
| cranberry on this side of the water.
! 1t is smaller, but better favored than
ours, and might prove a very agreeable
| addition to the American bill of fare
| in winter.
Thanksgiving, of course. is always
! associated with the cranberry With
out its sauce. indeed, the turkey would
be incomplete. According to reliable
| estimate, at. least $4,000 barrels of the
| luscious red berries are required to
meet the demand for the great autumn
| festival.
Cranberries. however are of impor-
! lance to human happiness in ways be-
You'd mere holiday making. They give
much needed employment in autumn 10
thousands Of men. women and children
especially in Massa chusetts and south
ern New Jersey, who by this means
are able to gain a little money to nelp
their families through the winter. For
this fruit is gathered almost entirely
by hand picking in which even the old
rolks and the very little ones are able
to take part. The period of harvest
covers about a month, during which
whole populations drop all other occu-
pations and assemble in the neighbor-
hood of the cranberry boys many of
the pickers living in tents 1t is for
them an extremely healthful, as well
as profitable vacation.
Crop Harvested While Green.
The picking begins earlier than in
former days, because the crop is usual
ly harvested green. After winnowing
the berries to get rid of leaves and re-
fuse that may be mixed with them,
they are carefully sorted, all defective
ones being picked out, and are spread
on the bare ground under an open
shed There they slowly ripen, ae-
quiring a beautiful red color, and in
due time are packed in barrels and
boxes for market.
The early colonists in Massachusetts
were introduced to the cranberry by
the indians, who had long been famil-
lar with its usefulness as a sauce for
game. 1t was, of course, a wild crop,
gathered in the autumn on the marsh
es; and such it remained up to within
comparatively recent years. On this
account the cranberries of earlier days
were much more expensive than they
are now, and before the Civil war they !
were sometimes gold at $50 barrel At
the present time the price is ordinarily |
about SIS TO IS barrel
One-Legged Man Starts 1t.
Since time immemorial that part of /
southern New Jersey which is includ- /
ed within the limits of Ocean and adj !
joining counties has been famous for /
its cranberry crop-the region in ques- /
ton embracing extensive areas of |
swamps. But the crop was always a /
wild crop up to so years ago. when its |
cultivation was first begun by a one
legged man named John Webb, at /
Forked river. He was a poor fellow
who earned a precarious living by do
ing odd jobs, which included the pick
ing of cranberries in the season when
they were ripe. In some way he az
quired ownership of piece of swamp
land where the wild berries grew, and |
that the vines flourished much more
luxuriantly. and bore larger and better
favored fruit, in places where sand /
had been washed from high ground and |
carried down upon the flat bog.
Taking advantage of the hint he
pulled all the pine and cedar stumps
out of his little swamp, leveled it,
spread three inches of sand over it, /
and drained it by dividing it into OBJ
long beds with bitches. People thought /
he was crazy. But three years later
he had such a crop of cranberries as
had never been seen before, and his /
fruit was of extraordinary size and 1
excellence When he died he left a
large fortune, all of it made out of !
cranberries..
Little Progress I'm Method.
Thus it was that cranberry culture,
today so important an industry, was
first begun. The method adopted at