The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 24, 1901, Page 16

SN THE CQURIOUS BRINGS FROM ’—é \4 A —— L2 INDUSTRY THRT ] BOG THOU- SANDS UPCN TROUSANDS OF RUSHRELS OF RERRIES RAND DOLLARS TN THE MILLIONS ell the the aggregate W ow erry crop of it will be seen man does s on the ap- has paid for her cran- om 5 to 10 cents a figure, accord- ing to the price the marketman or grocer = fits the occasion. The total value $1,700,000 to the pro- mer will pay enough to crop of berries began to drift from In October the me int by the Lor e first was evident the to be greater 569,000 bush- The men who deal t when th ing sale f to consumers in No- ly 400,000 bushels. The nberry 1s iving joy for rich poor, and it will be eaten this year as never bef Theo ly, the millions of people who eat cranberris where they come e growing and all. Prs in a hundred know how tically, they grow, and the majority of those who do know live in the vicinity of the As-a matter of fact, is an industry in which it requires considerable capital to embark y vine which eater part of the crop is the cranber pare a c it to a po berry bog or marsh and carry nt of profitable productiveness h is scted, but more often abandoned mill ponds are se- cured wt because the bot- ve to be by far the best From five to ten inches of clean, sharp sand is spread over the peaty earth in eit sh or bog, and the up- rights or nberry shoots - are either in rows fourteen inches same plan adopted in the Sometimes a salt mar: er possibl toms of these of all bogs. from hi se plants, or else scattered over the come up through cut in short pie sand. The the #and as thick as wheat, making an excellent growth, and t is matted with them. This mode requires more vines t e other, but yields a crop sconer than by ; other way. The success of t! hand- ling the ug the haru- iness of the particu- only stuck in t to grow, they tz out runn in three ye: comes into be years, if it has . a Log so begun ring. In five received proper at gives a liberal yield of fruit Cranberry bogs require a plen of water, and to provide this the g follows a system of irrigation. Ditches are excavated through the bugs, and frum THE SUNDAY CALL. these, 100 to 300 feet apart, la...eus, o= cross ditches, are constructed, in which the water runs from six to twelve inches deep. The flow of water is regulated by a gate, and the different sections of the bog are separated by dikes. These dikes are essential features of the bLog, becal by their aid the flood- ing system is accomplished and regulated. Frost is the cranberry’s enemy, and, sing- ularly, water is the only protection for the berries. Thus, when a gower be- a frosty night at hand, he floods sections of the bog where the fruit Ow A CRANBERRY PARSH LOOKS wHEN THREE YEARS OLD CRANBERRIES ARE remains ungathered, letting the water in until its level is from 18 to 24 inches over the tops of the vines. With the coming of the sun, the water is drained off, and in a short time the ground is dry enough for the pickers to work. After the crop is gathered, in fact from the first of Oc- tober until the last of March, the bog remains in a flooded state. The cranberry vine blossoms in June, and it is this appearance which gave the berry its name. Just before expanding into the perfect flower, the stem, calyx and petals resemble the neck, head and \ FPICKE D bill of a crane. Hence the name “craned which usage has shortened to the cranberry. In September the cranberry harvest be- gins, although October may more prop- erly be called the harvest month. When the section of the bog where the picking is to start is selected, it is divided into rows, the boundary lines being marked by stout twine, rdnning the entire length or width of the section. These rows vary in width from two to three feet. A row is assigned to a picker, who must strip the vines therein thoroughly before he is allowed to change to another row. The method of removing the berfien(. from the vires is simple and expeditious. The picker places his fingers, slightly spread beneath the vine or oush, close to the grounds a quick upward movement, and his hands have stripped the vine of its fruit. The berries are dropped & a pan by the picker's side. When t ‘pan becomes full it is emptied into a pail holding one-third of a bushel. The e tents of these p: is placed in er: The crates are taken to a storehouse where the berries are put through a w nowing machine, which removes the dir and leaves gathered 4 ng the harvest- ing. Following this they are crated or parreled, and made ready to ship to mar- ket. Three-fourths of the cranberry crop of ited States finds an Eastern mar- der stays In the Middle and Western States. Every year a small consignment of cranberries is shipped to and statistics show a slight b in exportation. It is on se should occur, cranberry Is in. European. v the eternal fitness of thin rd, the home of the Tha and the cranberry, ought e matter of devouring the figures award the palm to 50,000 busheis year. ymption ev for home cor QUEEREST SURGICAL OPERATION ON RECORD. ROM a late adventure among the = Passamaquoddy Indians, who border of New Brunswick, ert Loud of Boston, who has been hunting bears in the Maine woods for the past month, believes that the ab- ts of America are po P in August g on the Micmac River he rtune to cut a deep gash in ch bled copiously and caused n and trouble until he was -~ 8o fortunate as to recelve a visit from Chief Oku, a great medicine man of the tribe, whose fame known among ail the India Sastern St lamed when Of reduced the swel hing the leg with a decoction g up the wound y from a brook. When Dr. Louc the Indian to take some stitches cut Oku replied “‘Heem ne good. T'read heem: ma swell up, so be sore. See wat Oku heem do.” ns of the . but he at onc The chief went to a clearing and re- turned with a dozen e brown Then, grasping the two s.des of the cut between his and pinching them ant to bite at the through both sides of th r, he caused an utting his jaws the cut and elosing m as firmly as if they had been in a . When he had applied eight auts in nner he coolly pulled off their bod- g but their heads at- sore geet well,” said Oku, winding a bandage of soft cloth around the leg aad fastening it as neatly as a trained nurse could have done. “In nine day—tweive day, maybe, take off cloth; find heem ail well.” Dr. Loud followed Instructions and came out cured. The heads of the ants had held on as firm pincers, and although the insects werd long dead it required considerable torce to pull away the locked jaws. Dr. Loud also believes that the formic acid which the ants secrete from their mandibles has antiseptic qualities.¢ which are unknown to medicine, and pro- poses to make a few experiments along this line on his return to Boston.—New York Sun.