FRUIT CULTURE. 17 



cash to the Northern dealers, who distribute the cars to the various 

 Northern markets, and this system has been found to be more satis- 

 factory than when the individual growers shipped to commission 

 merchants in the cities and took all the risks. 



While strawberry growing is the leading interest in some sections, 

 it is by no means the only culture, for in the same sections large crops 

 of early Irish potatoes, green peas, and other crops are produced and 

 shipped North. Then, too, the climate allows of much double crop- 

 ping. For instance, between the rows of early potatoes, when the 

 cultivation is completed, cotton is planted, and when the potatoes are 

 dug in June the cotton cultivation goes on, and often very large and 

 profitable crops of cotton are produced after a profitable crop of pota- 

 toes has been sold from the same land. In like manner the straw- 

 berry 'plantation is allowed to bear two crops, and is then plowed 

 down, as soon as the second crop is gathered, and cotton planted at 

 once on the land. Or, after the strawberries, a crop of peas can be 

 sown and cut for hay in time to plant the same land in a second crop 

 of Irish potatoes from seed of the early crop. This second crop is 

 now used entirely for seed for the early crops the following season. 



There is still much room for the development of the strawberry 

 culture, for the demand for berries of high quality is always good 

 and is annually increasing with the increase in population northward, 

 and even with an excess there would be room for large canning estab- 

 lishments to compete with California in fruit packing. 



While the coast region will always be the section where profitable 

 strawberry growing for the Northern market will be carried on, the 

 increase in the towns of the State makes* home markets for a great 

 deal of the fruit, and makes the culture of the strawberry profitable 

 to many in all parts of the State who never ship a crate North. In 

 fact, the home markets are apt to be overlooked and poorly supplied. 

 The valley lands of the mountain section produce strawberries of the 

 finest quality, and, as we have suggested, they may be the source for 

 supplying a great trade with the far South in these berries or in can- 

 ning them. 



RASPBERRIES. 



Raspberries, like strawberries, can be grown in every section of the 

 State, but are far better adapted to the upper piedmont and mountain 

 sections than to the warmer parts of the State. In the eastern section 

 the raspberry will never be of commercial importance, since the cli- 

 mate is too warm for the largest crops and the fruit does not bear 

 long transportation like the strawberry. In all the eastern and 

 warmer sections the raspberry needs to be grown in the richest and 

 most moist clay soils, and, while not needing winter protection as in 

 the North, it needs shade and careful cultivation to carry the plants 

 well through the long summer, and, with the red varieties, especially, 

 the crop is not near so large as in the North and in the upper sections. 



