PICKING STRAWBERRIES ON THE FARM OF H. R. WAYMAN, PRINCETON, MERCER COUNTY, MISSOURI 



Shipping Strawberries by Thousands of Carloads 



BECAUSE of the vast number of 

 berries shipped from that section 

 of North Carolina of which the 

 city of Wilmington is the center, it has 

 become known as the "Nation's Straw- 

 berry Patch." And a marvelous thing it 

 is that from so small an area, compara- 

 tively, comes such a supply of the deli- 

 cious fruit. It is said that ten thousand 

 people are directly interested in the busi- 

 ness of producing and shipping straw- 

 berries in that section, and the total output 

 for the season reached more than 3,000 

 carloads. Perhaps we may in no better 

 way convey to our readers an idea of the 

 magnitude of this interest than to quote 

 the account given by the Wilmington 

 Messenger of May 6 of the way in which 

 the work went forward for the week 

 ended May 5, as follows: 



"Yesterday was the biggest day for the 

 shipment of strawberries out of this sec- 

 tion ever known. Two hundred and 

 twenty-six cars are reported by the Ar- 

 mour people for yesterday. The week 

 has also been a record-breaker, 1,168 

 cars of berries having gone forward. 



"It was said last night at the offices of 

 the Armour line, in this city, that the 

 shipment was the greatest ever known in 

 the history of the berry industry. It is 

 said that the high mark of the season has 

 been reached and that there will be a 

 gradual dropping ofF in the number of 

 cars from now on to the end of the season. 

 The record of shipments for each day 

 last week was as follows: Monday, 184 

 cars; Tuesday, 193; Wednesday, 185; 

 Thursday, 182; Friday, 189; Saturday, 



226. These with ten cars which have 

 gone out from the short cut section, be- 

 tween Florence and Wilson, bring the 

 total up to 1,168 cars. 



The report of H. T. Bauman, busi- 

 ness agent of the Eastern Carolina Fruit 

 and Truck Growers Association, of the 

 number of cars to pass through South 

 Rocky Mount was 190, distributed as 

 follows: New York 42, Newark 8, 

 Philadelphia 18, Boston 29, Providence 

 8, Cleveland 5, Buffalo 11, Pittsburg 13, 

 Albany 5, Washington, Scranton, 4 each; 

 Baltimore, Worcester, Bridgeport, Har- 

 risburg, Columbus, Schenectady, Syra- 

 cuse, Montreal, 2 each; Springfield 3; 

 Brooklyn, Keen, Fall River, Reading, 

 Wilkesbarre, Logansport, Erie, Burling- 

 ton, Elmira, Canton, Portland, New 

 Britain, New Haven, Bingampton, 

 Rochester,- Troy, Norristdwn, Hartford, 

 Hornellsville, Amsterdam, New Bedford, 

 Utica, Hazelton, Pittsfield, 1 each. 



"To appreciate the magnitude of the 

 berry business one has to go through the 

 great berry belt and see the large fields 

 where hundreds of people are at work 

 picking the luscious fruit. And when it 

 is considered that the enormous business 

 is handled in the period of only about 

 three weeks it can readily be seen how 

 enormous is the task. If the crop gets 

 much larger facilities for taking care of it 

 will have to be increased enormously. 

 One of the greatest troubles seems to be 

 that of getting cars iced. 



"An enormous amount of money is 

 now pouring into eastern Carolina and 

 the banks located in the different towns 



Page 131 



in the trucking belt are kept busy day 

 and night. Saturday is a big day for 

 paying off and yesterday morning a Wil- 

 mington banker was seen going to a near- 

 by town on an early morning train with a 

 large bag of money, and ere this article is 

 read it will be distributed among hundreds 

 of people who are picking strawberries in 

 the vicinity." 



In its issue of May 12 the same jour- 

 nal, in reporting the work of the preced- 

 ing week, said: 



"With shipments still going forward 

 at the rate of 100 cars and upwards per 

 day, the strawberry crop has already 

 reached about the proportions it was esti- 

 mated at earlier in the season, and the end 

 is not yet. The shipments for the week 

 ended last night were 902 refrigerator 

 cars and express shipments large enough 

 to run the total up again to more than a 

 thousand cars. The shipments the pre- 

 ceding week were 1,013 cars, according 

 to the official bulletins sent out by Bus- 

 iness Agent Bauman, so that it is seen 

 that the season's shipments are already 

 well up towards 2,500 cars. Shipments 

 will continue at least a week or more 

 longer and a grand total of more than 

 3,000 cars may be expected as the crop 

 for 1906." 



On Wednesday, May 9, shipments 

 from the Wilmington district reached the 

 tremendous total of 212 cars — without 

 doubt second only to the world's record 

 breaker for a single day's business out of 

 one strawberry district. 



But vast as is the business done by the 

 .Atlantic Coast and Southern Railway 



