Large portions of Jackson, Wood, Monroe, Marinette, Juneau, and Green counties are natural cranberry marshes.  The Wisconsin Valley division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway runs through a closely continuous marsh, forty miles long and nearly as wide, as level as a floor, which is an almost unbroken series of cranberry farms.  The Indians, who inhabited this country before the white man came, used to congregate here every fall, many of them traveling several hundred miles, to lay in their winter supply of berries.  Many thousands of barrels are now annually shipped from this region; and thus this vast area, which to the stranger looking upon it would appear utterly worthless, is as valuable as the richest farming lands in the State.

In a few instances, however, this fruit is cultivated in Wisconsin in a style similar to that practiced in the East; that is, by paring the natural sod from the bog, covering the earth to a depth of two or three inches with sand, and then transplanting the vines into soil thus prepared.  The weeds are then kept down for a year or two, when the vines take full possession of the soil, and further attention is unnecessary.  The natural “stand” of the vines in the sod is so productive, however, and the extent of country over which bountiful nature has distributed them so vast, that few operators have thought it necessary to incur the expense of special culture.

One of the best and most perfectly equipped marshes in Wisconsin is owned by Mr. G.B.  Sackett, of Berlin.  It is situated four miles north of that village, and comprises 1,600 acres, nearly all of which is a veritable bog, and is covered with a natural and luxuriant growth of cranberry vines.  A canal has been cut from the Fox River to the southern limit of the marsh, a distance of 4,400 ft.  It is 45 ft. wide, and the water stands in it to a depth of nine feet, sufficient to float fair sized steamboats.  At the intersection of the canal with the marsh steam water works have been erected, with flood gates and dams by means of which the entire marsh may be flooded to a depth of a foot or more when desired.  There are two engines of 150 horse power each, and two pumps that are capable of raising 80,000 gallons per minute.

When, in early autumn, the meteorological conditions indicate the approach of frost, the pumps may he put to work in the afternoon and the berries be effectually covered by water and thus protected before nightfall.  At sunrise the gates are opened and the water allowed to run off again, so that the pickers may proceed with their work.  The marsh is flooded to a depth of about two feet at the beginning of each winter and allowed to remain so until spring, the heavy body of ice that forms preventing the upheaval that would result from freezing and thawing—­a natural process which, if permitted, works injury to the vines.

There is a three-story warehouse on the marsh, with a capacity of 20,000 barrels of berries, and four large two-story houses capable of furnishing shelter for 1,500 pickers.  The superintendent’s residence is a comfortable cottage house, surrounded by giant oaks and elms, and stands near the warehouse on an “island,” or small tract of high, dry land near the center of the great marsh.  The pickers’ quarters stand on another island about 200 yards away.