THE STRAWBERRY FEBRUARY 1906 



received the top prices on the Chicago 

 market for all the late berries he could 

 supply. He found that the demand for 

 berries was stronger after the Fourth of 

 July than it had been at any previous 

 time in the season. 



Strawberry growers never need fear 

 about the demand if they will study the 

 actual wants of the markets and see to it 

 that their products are of the character 

 required. The idea of good fruit grows 

 by what it feeds on; where there was one 

 critical consumer of these products ten 

 years ago there is one hundred today. 

 Every other branch of horticulture proves 

 this condition to be universal. Let us see 

 to it that we make the most of these 

 opportunities. 



Some Strawberry Statistics 



WHEN we consider the facts in con- 

 nection with the commercial side 

 of strawberry production in the 

 United States, it is surprising how little 

 definite information is available as to its 

 actual or relative importance. We are 

 told that one railway line in the South- 

 eastern states will require 2,000 refrigera- 

 tor cars to handle the crop the coming 

 season; from private advices we learn that 

 at Wilmington, N. C, alone 10,000 per- 

 sons are engaged in the work of straw- 

 berry production in one way or another, 

 and it is reported from dozens of places 

 that hundreds of carloads are shipped 

 every season from each. Yet when we 

 go to the Agricultural Department at 

 Washington, or to the Census Bureau, 

 and ask for figures, the results are decid- 

 edly meagre. However, from L. C. Cor- 

 bett, horticulturist of the Agricultural De- 

 partment comes an interesting letter on 

 the subject, from which we quote: 



"I regret to say that we cannot place 

 at your disposal any published reports 

 which give a summarized statement of 

 the relative importance of the several 

 commercial fruits grown in the United 

 States. The only reports which we have 

 bear exclusively upon the value of these 

 products in the United States, and we 

 cannot give you any information concern- 

 ing the importance of these crops in other 

 countries except in a general way. 



"From the figures at hand it appears 

 that apples stand first in commercial im- 

 portance of all the fruits grown in the 

 United States. Second to the apple 

 seems to be the strawberry, which, ac- 

 cording to the latest figures available at 

 this office, has a commercial value of 

 about $15,000,000 annually, while the 

 value of the apple crop is in the neighbor- 

 hood of $60,000,000. l"he grape in- 

 dustry follows third in the list and is val- 

 ued at something over $14,000,000. The 

 other fruits are of minor importance, the 

 value of peaches and nectarines probably 

 being in the neighborhood of seven or 

 eight million dollars. There is no other 



small fruit which approaches the straw- 

 berry either in the extent of the industry 

 or in commercial value. The strawberry 

 is a very cosmopolitan plant, being able 

 to adapt itself to almost every soil and lo- 

 cality within the confines of the United 

 States. There are some few restricted 

 areas where it requires special attention 

 for the cultivation of this crop, but along 

 the Atlantic seaboard and the great cen- 

 tral portion of the United States it is a 

 very important commercial as well as 

 garden crop. In European countries the 

 strawberry is of minor importance as 

 compared with it in America. They do 

 not depend so exclusively upon the type 

 of berries which are popular in America, 

 but have given more attention to the so- 

 called Alpine, or ever-bearing berries. 



"During the census year of 1900 the 

 average yield per acre was 1,700 quarts of 

 strawberries, and the total acreage in the 

 United States was 151,373." 



These are interesting facts and figures, 

 so far as they go; but they do not go far 

 enough. An interest so large and repre- 

 senting so many people ought to com- 

 mand the attention of the census authori- 

 ties and the statisticians to the extent that 

 fairly complete data concerning it be ob- 

 tained and published. Strawberry folk 

 ever>'where, especially those engaged in 

 its commercial production, should unite 

 in an effort to secure such attention at the 

 hands of the authorities at Washington. 



Jug-Handied Reform Ideas 



WE have it on the authority of the 

 Washington correspondents that a 

 strong lobby of commission men 

 representing the large trade centers, is now 

 at Washington demanding the abolition 

 of the private-car lines because — these 

 car lines are wrong in principle and a 

 private monopoly of gigantic and unholy 

 power.? Not at all! These commission 

 men are compelled through the operation 

 of the private-car lines to buy from the 

 strawberry and other fruit growers at the 

 shipping points, instead, as formerly, of 

 merely handling consignments and re- 

 ceiving their 2-per-cent commission 

 whether the grower got a penny or not. 

 They prefer to return to the old way and 

 compel the shipper to take all the risk — 

 and are asking the government to help 

 them out. 



It is hardly necessary to point out the 

 one-sidedness of this proposition. Just 

 in so far as the private-car lines have re- 

 lieved the grower of bearing all the risk of 

 sending his produce to a stranger hundreds 

 of miles away over whom he could have 

 no control, they have served a good pur- 

 pose — perhaps the only good thing that 

 may be said of an institution so inherently 

 a monoply. And when the commission 

 men seek to destroy this monopoly in or- 

 der that a certain degree of monopolistic 



Page 26 



power may be restored to them, they de- 

 serve nothing but defeat. 



Good citizenship considers the general 

 welfare. If the general welfare demands 

 the abolishment of the private-car lines, 

 and this journal believes it does, all intei- 

 ests should ally themselves together to 

 abolish those lines, not because they de- 

 stroy a monopoly some happen to enjoy; 

 not because they give the shipper a chance 

 and compel the commission man to work 

 a little harder to make a fixing; but be- 

 cause it is right — and right never did 

 harm to any honest man. 



^ -^ 



Strawberry Growers Organize 



COOPERATION is a principle that 

 it is well to put into actual practice 

 as generally as is possible, and it is 

 with pleasure we note that strawberry 

 growers are discovering it to be to their 

 advantage to organize for cooperative ef- 

 fort and mutual benefit. One such or- 

 ganization we know of in Tennessee is 

 getting ready for the season of 1906 with 

 large prospects of success, and it ought to 

 set other folks to thinking. In a note to 

 The Strawberry its secretary and treas- 

 urer, A. W Freeman, writes as follows 

 concerning it: 



"We are known as the Nashville 

 Strawberry association, organized last 

 August for the mutual benefit of the 

 growers, and we hope that we may real- 

 ize more uniform prices for our berries. 

 Our object is to sell direct to those who 

 buy in carload lots — to sell by wire to 

 their representatives f. o. b. Nashville. 

 We shall endeavor to give an honest 

 pack and full quarts of clean, ripe berries. 

 We confidently expect to have in our as- 

 sociation by next berry season 25,000 

 crates of twenty-four quarts of Gandys 

 and Michel's Early to market." White's 

 Creek, nine miles from Nashville, is the 

 seat of this important enterprise. 



It will be observed that there are two 

 elements in the plan of this association — 

 to help themselves and e: ch other, and to 

 market good berries, htnestly packed. 

 Our Tennessee friends may not lay too 

 much stress upon the latter; indeed, they 

 may be very sure that if the berries are 

 good and packed "on honor", they will 

 find more business awaiting them at top 

 prices than they can handle. The market 

 with too many first-class strawberries, 

 put up by those known to act "on the 

 square", never has existed in the United 

 States. 



The Castleberry (Ala.) Fruit Growers' 

 Association began shipping cooperatively 

 in 1902 with but thirty-two acres in the 

 association. Reports show that the total 

 net returns from that year's crop were 

 $13,342.40, or an average net return per 

 acre of $416.95. The highest net re- 

 turns per acre were $533.13, while the 

 lowest net return to any individual mem- 

 ber of the association was $300.58 an acre. 



