the; ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 49 



pany last year will convey some idea of the gold mine that 

 has been uncovered by the South Alabama strawberry growers. 

 That company last season sold ninety-nine cars of strawberries 

 for $96,000. 



"I saw a car load of strawberries at Castleberry sell for 

 $1,237.50," said Superintendent J. I. McKinney, "and I s'aw 

 another man offered $1,225 for a car load. That's the highest 

 price paid for any car load of agricultural products that were 

 shipped out of the State last year. You might ship gold quartz 

 out of Alabama and get more for a car load of it than for a 

 car load of Escambia County strawberries, but that's about the 

 only thing that would bring the money." 



The Castleberry plantation is of course the biggest single 

 item in the strawberry industry in Alabama ; but Evergreen 

 has been making some history in raising and shipping straw- 

 berries. Out of Evergreen, a man in the business told me 

 there were shipped $50,000 worth of strawberries. The Ever- 

 green strawberry growers' shipped between 25,000 and 35,060 

 cases last year, each case containing twenty- four cjuarts. That's 

 a pretty good showing for an incidental industry and one of 

 which the Evergreen community has not yet begun to boast. 



But the possibilities of strawberry raising are recognized 

 by the Conecuh County people. They are not ignorant of nor 

 indifferent to its value. The acreage of strawberries is being 

 rapidly increased. The plants are being put in the ground at 

 every convenient place and next year there will be a heavy 

 increase in the strawberry shipments' from Evergreen. 



The other parts of Alabama hardly know that truck farm- 

 ing is a distinct, and profitable business in Conecuh County, 

 and yet they have been shipping vegetables out of Evergreen 

 for the past twelve years. The growth of this business has' 

 been slow, but steady. It has not gone forward in leaps and 

 bounds like the business of growing strawberries and peaches. 



Tomatoes are great products' of this county. No less than 

 fifteen full car loads of tomatoes were shipped out of Ever- 

 green during the past season. Many other tomatoes went for- 

 ward to northern consumers by express in express cars. The 

 fine climate, the sandy soil, with its clay Subsoil is said to be 

 ideal for the raising of vegetables. In addition to the toma- 

 toes, large quantities of cabbages, beans, and radishes went 

 forward last spring and summer in refrigerator cars., . 



