CRANBERRY ENEMIES.
Oneof 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, recommendedits “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.