Part 2

So marked is this effect, that if any one having a Cranberry bog will fertilize a small section of it for one season, at the rate of 200 to 400 pounds of Bradley’s Phosphate to the acre, he will always use this fertilizer thereafter, as the results will readily prove that it will pay him liberally to do so.

Another reason for fertilization is, that, through a liberal use of Bradley’s Superphosphate, the young plants attain that sturdy growth which enables them to withstand more successfully the attacks of the fire, fruit, and span worm, which flourish best upon weak plants.

The common theory that a fertilizer is simply a stimulant, whose influence is of no permanent benefit, has been proved to be erroneous by the experiments of some of the largest growers, who, after having used Bradley’s Superphosphate, find that not only have they grown enormous crops of the best quality berries, but their bogs are annually in a better condition than their neighbors’ bogs which have not been fertilized, and from which only small or average crops of berries have been secured.

By common consent, therefore, the leading growers are large users of Bradley’s Superphosphate, as they are convinced that its liberal use upon their bogs is repaid to them every season in increased crops of perfect fruit which commands the highest market price.

* * * * *

SOUTH YARMOUTH, MASS., Oct. 22, 1891.

I have used the Bradley Fertilizer on newly set cranberry vines, and find it causes them to grow and spread more rapidly over a new bog.

JAMES F. SEARS.

CRANBERRY ENEMIES.

One of the greatest enemies to successful Cranberry growing is one that can be easily conquered, but which is oftenest neglected; that is, the weeds and small bushes when they first appear. It is a comparatively easy matter under the more favorable conditions, during the three years before the bog comes to full bearing, to go over it once or twice during each season with a hoe, and clean out every weed and bush, no matter how small and insignificant it make look. But the grower often thinks that this is unnecessary labor, especially as he has put considerable money into the bog, and as yet has had no returns from his investment. If this work is neglected now, when the bog comes to fruiting there will be found, especially among the plants, quite an amount of injurious weeds and small bushes which increase rapidly from year to year, and finally kill out the bog. But if during the first three years they are steadily and systematically cut down, they become so thoroughly eradicated that a little going over the bog every spring will keep it in good condition for ten or fifteen years, with little trouble from either weeds or bushes.

The cultivation of the Cranberry, ever since it has been cultivated for a crop, has been a practical exemplification of the advice of that eminent agriculturist, Horace Greeley, who, for the extermination of the Canadian thistle, recommended its “cultivation,” as then there would come plenty of enemies to accomplish its destruction.

The fire, span, tip, and fruit worms rank in the order named as the most destructive,--the first two in the list blasting in a few hours an almost assured and abundant crop.

The larger growers, after experimenting with perhaps all of the known insecticides, have most generally adopted some form of tobacco preparation, applied in solution in the form of a spray, upon the first indication of the approach of the fire-worm.

So extensive is the use of tobacco, that one grower, Mr. Franklin Crocker, of Hyannis, treasurer of the South Sea Cranberry Company, who has probably given as much attention as any other grower to this branch of the business, informs us that for himself and others he purchased, in its various forms, over five thousand dollars’ worth of tobacco during the past two years, for this purpose. Mr. Crocker tells of his experience with tobacco in his letter on page 3 of cover.

Many growers (not all) are able to resort to “Spring Flowage” as an effective and cheap remedy for fire-worms. That this is effective there can be no question, but in its application for destroying the worm it is injurious to the keeping quality of the fruit when gathered.

THE HARVEST.

The picking of berries commences about the first of September. They should be picked as soon as the greater part have put on a good, fair color. The great mistake in the past has been in allowing the berries to become over size. The trade has demanded _dark_ berries, which made the Early Blacks so popular; but all that was gained in _color_ was at the sacrifice of the keeping quality, to the injury of the grower and dealer.

This is becoming so well recognized that “pick early” comes with the greater emphasis from all the larger dealers, who, by sad experiences, have become more interested in this particular feature than the grower, who, gathering his harvest of beautiful fruit, has also immediately gathered in the skekels, recognizing that “the best time to sell is right off the bog.” Thus has he “Sown to the Wind;” and while disaster has been delayed, its coming is manifest in the experience of the past season, when in some cases the crop has not paid expenses.

An old receipt, “How to cook a hare,” began, “First catch the hare.” We have endeavored to tell you how to get the crop; and now, supposing you have this, we will give you an idea of how it is gathered, so far as may be of interest to the uninitiated: Lines are drawn across the bog, from eight to twenty feet apart, as a guide for keeping in place those pickers who incline otherwise to the right or left, as “spots” thick or thin allure or repel them in their eagerness “to fill the measure.” Then, placing as many pickers within the lines as can have sufficient “elbow room,” picking length-wise, they proceed to pick.

An overseer is needed for every twenty-five pickers, to see that the work is properly done, each in his or her own place, and that all are picking clean from the vines, and from the “bottom;” that is, picking from the ground all scattering berries.

Measures holding six quarts are the most convenient size, and the usual price is ten cents per measure, each picker using generally two measures and so saving time, as the berries must be carried to the “Tally.” The pickers are all known by numbers, and as they go to empty their measure they report “Number (5),” one or two measures, as the case may be, the Tally repeating each number and tally, as a precaution against mistakes.

On some bogs checks are given thus: “Good for ten cents, South Sea Co., F. Crocker, Hyannis, Treas.;” and such checks are current coin during “Cranberry time” for supplies at the stores.

Again, others provide themselves with a large amount of dimes, and so “pay off” as each measure is delivered. Berries, after being picked, should be put in slatted boxes holding about one bushel each, as being the most convenient size to handle, and then put away for at least twenty-four hours to cool off, as prevention against the almost immediate process of decay if this is not done.

BARRELLING.

After being thoroughly cooled they are put in screens about ten feet long, three feet wide at the upper end, and six to eight inches at the lower end, from which, under the careful eye of an expert “screener,” they are “run” into a barrel set ready to receive them.

Four or five screeners about each screen remove all trash and unsound berries, and sometimes the light-colored ones, which are held to “color up,” or packed separately and marked “Light.” As the barrels are being filled, they should be thoroughly shaken, at least three times; then, when the uninitiated packer thinks he has got the barrel full enough, it needs from four to six quarts more, when, with a screw, press the berries firmly down into the barrel. The barrels now properly headed and nailed, carry the berries in shape to command the highest price for which their grade may warrant. It _pays_ to pack the fruit as _solid_ as possible, since, whether sound or otherwise, a full barrel will _sell_ when one lacking one inch or more of berries will command little attention.

* * * * *

WEST HARWICH, MASS., Oct. 19, 1891.

In the spring of 1890 I bought an acre of cranberry bog that had been set about 30 years, and was so run down as to bear only about 10 barrels per year. I immediately applied 400 pounds of Bradley’s Fertilizer, and received the first year a crop of 22 barrels.

Last spring I applied 600 pounds of same Fertilizer, and have just gathered 40 barrels of nice berries, making an increase of 30 barrels a year on one acre by the use of Bradley’s Fertilizer, equal to 300 per cent. gain.

Besides all this improvement in the crop, the Fertilizer has had the effect to renew the vines to such an extent as to give them the appearance of a new bog, while the moss, which was quite troublesome, has been wholly killed out. It is surprising to see how quick moss will begin to disappear where Bradley’s Fertilizer has been applied.

W. P. BAKER.

THE 1891 CROP IN THE NEW ENGLAND STATES.

The following comparative statement of the 1891 crop of Cranberries on Dec. 1, 1891, in the New England States, was compiled by Charles H. Nye, Esq., Superintendent Cape Cod Division, Old Colony Railroad, and allowing that 9,000 bushels may have been grown in Rhode Island and Connecticut, would make the 1891 crop about or quite 480,000 bushels.

============================+===============+======================== | 1890. | 1891. | STATIONS SHIPPED FROM. +--------+------+--------+------+ TO BE |BARRELS.|BOXES.|BARRELS.|BOXES.|SHIPPED. ----------------------------+--------+------+--------+------+-------- Rock | 1,879 | 993| 3,420 | 296| South Middleboro | 74 | 14| 248 | 14| Tremont | 16,840 | 2,640| 23,986 | 2,486| 200 Marion | 440 | 310| 441 | 361| Mattapoisett | 175 | 63| 215 | 688| South Wareham | 416 | 90| 516 | 269| Wareham | 14,919 | 4,870| 18,125 | 4,743| East Wareham | 2,223 | 203| | | Onset Junction | | | 3,412 | 156| 300 Buzzard’s Bay | 33 | 127| 223 | 130| Monument Beach | 229 | 147| 550 | 18| Wenaumet | 37 | 31| 103 | 97| Cataumet | 1690 | 498| 323 | 381| North Falmouth | 655 | 711| 753 | 1,459| West Falmouth | 164 | 11| 90 | 15| Falmouth | 1,997 | 872| 4,085 | 3,281| 400 Woods Holl | 182 | | | | Bourne | 859 | 83| 1,606 | 415| Bournedale | 1,512 | 738| 1,160 | 654| Sagamore | 3,108 | 1,343| 4,589 | 971| Sandwich | 2,626 | 2,925| 6,003 | 2,700| 1,000 West Barnstable | 8,081 | 1,804| 12,599 | 2,174| Barnstable | 399 | 9| 383 | 14| Yarmouth | 2,943 | 990| 5,373 | 673| 200 Hyannis | 1,754 | 589| 2,270 | 810| 1,000 South Yarmouth | 1,890 | 525| 4,712 | 503| South Dennis | 2,434 | 754| 5,780 | 787| North Harwich | 2,073 | 770| 3,945 | 1,257| 250 Harwich | 4,847 | 3,160| 10,996 | 3,059| South Harwich | 613 | 181| 802 | 702| South Chatham | 160 | 80| 382 | 139| Chatham | 498 | 241| 649 | 277| Pleasant Lake | 1,244 | 1,031| 1,369 | 1,210| Brewster | 2,440 | 457| 2,959 | 585| Orleans | 568 | 165| 1,218 | 164| Eastham | 104 | 36| 137 | 132| 50 North Eastham | 10 | 12| 36 | 36| South Wellfleet | 10 | 2| 26 | | Wellfleet | 80 | 55| 67 | 20| South Truro | 45 | 45| 27 | 20| Truro | | | 88 | | North Truro | | | 8 | | Provincetown | 146 | 61| 57 | 5| ----------------------------+--------+------+--------+------+-------- Total shipments, barrels | 79,006 |27,646|123,737 |31,761| 3,400 Boxes reduced to barrels | 9,215 | | 10,587 | | ----------------------------+--------+------+--------+------+-------- Total number barrels | 88,221 | |134,324 | | To be shipped | 1,665 | | 3,400 | | ----------------------------+--------+------+--------+------+-------- Total, Cape Cod Division| 89,886 | |137,724 | | ============================+========+======+========+======+========

CENTRAL DIVISION, OLD COLONY RAILROAD.

========================+======+======================== | 1890.| 1891. | STATIONS SHIPPED FROM. +------+--------+------+ TOTAL |BOXES.|BARRELS.|BOXES.|BARRELS. ------------------------+------+--------+------+-------- Plymouth |11,232| 11,194 | 980| 11,521 Plympton | 1,418| 1,964 | 589| 2,160 South Hanson | 660| 665 | 16| 670 Middleboro’ | | 2,045 | 1,038| 2,391 North Easton | | 300 | | 300 Taunton | 240| 232 | | 232 Mansfield | | 182 | | 182 Attleboro’ | 240| 528 | | 528 ------------------------+------+--------+------+-------- Central Division | | | | 17,984 Martha’s Vineyard | | | | 1,308 ------------------------+------+--------+------+-------- Total number barrels | | | | 19,292 Add Cape Cod Division | | | |137,724 ------------------------+------+--------+------+-------- Total number barrels| | | |157,016 Or 471,048 bushels. | | | | ========================+======+========================

THE 1891 CROP OF THE UNITED STATES.

Mr. A. J. Rider, Secretary of the American Cranberry Growers’ Association, estimates the entire crop of Cranberries grown in 1891 as follows:

New England 480,000 bush. New Jersey 250,000 ” The West 30,000 ” ------- Total 760,000 ”

Showing that the crop for the entire country was short 100,000 bushels, when compared with the 1890 crop.

THE FERTILIZER FOR CRANBERRIES.

Bradley’s Superphosphate, “the old reliable,” has been successfully used in the cultivation of Cranberries for many years past.

It is, as every one knows, the best general fertilizer on the market. By _practical experience_, and not by fallacious (though plausible) _theories_, it has demonstrated its entire fitness for growing the best Cranberries and producing the largest crops. It has been repeatedly noticed that Cranberries grown on this fertilizer are more highly colored, harder, and better “keepers” than those raised under ordinary conditions of cultivation.

As Bradley’s Phosphate contains the very choicest quality of plant foods in such forms and proportions as long practical experience has demonstrated will most fully satisfy the demands of the crop for a complete and nutritious fertilizer, it wholly meets the requirements of the Cranberry, as has been abundantly proven by exhaustive tests on the largest bogs.

A “Special Fertilizer” for Cranberries, claimed to be “based on their analysis,” may be taking with some; but this is only an _idea_,--a _theory_ without _practice_ to support it, an advertising dodge to catch the uninitiated. The theory of feeding plants on this basis was exploded long ago both at home and abroad; and while formerly one manufacturer of “Special Fertilizers” advertised twenty-four special crop formulas, he now sells but ten, and the analyses of these are totally different from the original formulas which were represented as accurate demonstrations of the “discovery,” so called.

Professor Johnson, Director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, and one of the best authorities on agricultural chemistry of this country, has said: “_In honest truth, there is no possibility of compounding special fertilizers adapted to each of our various crops, nor even to our various classes of crops. Special manures for particular crops are, in fact, least heard of where agriculture is guided by the clearest light of science and the widest range of experience._”

Professor Atwater, recently Director of the Experiment Stations of the United States at Washington, has stated: “_There is no best fertilizer for any crop, and the formulas to fit all cases are out of the question._” So do not be caught by this _theory_ snare, and pay four or five dollars a ton extra on your fertilizer for that “idea.”

Bradley’s Superphosphate has stood the test of nearly thirty years, and its sales are far greater than that of any other fertilizer on the market. It is the acknowledged _Standard_, so recognized by its strongest competitors, whose favorite argument is that their fertilizer is “equal to Bradley’s.” “There are tricks in all trades,” but no trick can undermine the stability of an article so universally recognized as the _standard of excellence_ in its class as Bradley’s Phosphate.

The following letter may serve to answer inquiries about “_Insecticide_.”

HYANNIS, MASS., Feb. 22, 1892.

In regard to tobacco as an insecticide, I submit the following: Tobacco solution is prepared by steeping tobacco stems in warm water, using from one and a half to two pounds of stems to a gallon of water, according to strength of stems in the nicotine principle. So far, the larger growers prefer the stems from the Missouri-river region, and for this purpose I ordered six car-loads last Saturday from that section for the use of growers the coming season.

Of the solution, when prepared, it takes about one gallon to a square rod, applied in the form of a spray as fine as possible. For this purpose the “Nixon Pump” is the most effective among the many that I have ever tested. The application should be made upon the first appearance of the worms; any delay resulting often in entire loss of crop, since nothing but flowage will kill the larger worms. Another and more convenient solution is obtained from Hill’s Extract of Tobacco--two or three quarts to a barrel of water. This requires no heating, and may be prepared at a moment’s notice. My sales last year of this Extract amounted to over eight hundred gallons.

Respectfully yours, FRANKLIN CROCKER.