Water Use in Cranberry Production, Southeastern Massachusetts

Although agriculture represents a minor component of the Massachusetts economy, the southeastern portion of the state is the major cranberry producing area in the nation. While cranberry production has been increasing in Massachusetts, its share of the national production has been declining in recent years. Over 80 percent of the regions’ cranberry production occurs in Plymouth County. Water management is an integral part of cranberry production. Bogs are flooded over winter to prevent winterkill. In both spring and fall, either flooding or sprinkler systems are utilized periodically to provide frost protection. Water harvesting has become increasingly popular in recent years principally because it increases yields. Flooding is also employed to remove trash and to control certain insects. During dry periods, bogs are also irrigated. In order to gain an insight as to the interrelationships among cranberry bog acreages by town and selected socioeconomic and locational variables, the factor analysis technique was employed. Five orthogonal factors were extracted through the factor rotation procedure. There were identified as urbanization, cranberry industry viability, accessibility, urbanism, and ruralism. Using cranberry acreages by town, as the dependent variable, the maximum R² improvement regression procedure was employed using sixteen independent variables. By the use of this technique, an R² of .984 was determined with as few as five independent variables. Eight multiple regression equations were developed to provide a basis to project future cranberry acreages by town. Projections based on the regression equation for which data on the independent variables were most readily available indicated that cranberry acreages would decline 44 percent by 1990. Based on this figure, it was estimated that water use in cranberry production would decline by more than one-half by 1990.