194 Strawberry-Growing 



chance to reach northern markets. By 1885 Thomas- 

 ville, Georgia, and northern Florida were shipping steadily. 

 In the Mississippi Valley, there was a similar extension 

 of the industry southward to supply the Chicago market, 

 beginning with Berrien County, Michigan, and southern 

 Illinois, thence by degrees to Tennessee, Missouri, Arkan- 

 sas, Louisiana and Texas. 



Influence of weather on the season. 



Normally, there is a fairly well defined succession in 

 the ripening periods of the different districts, from South 

 to North; but this may be upset completely by the 

 weather, as has been stated by a Florida grower : ^ "Sup- 

 pose a frost comes sweeping down over the state, killing 

 most of the bloom. Under favorable circumstances, we 

 may look for ripe fruit about three weeks after the bloom 

 opens. Suppose, after the frost, we have three or four 

 weeks of warm weather. The result is that, instead of 

 the fruit coming on at its natural time at each point, the 

 state throws its whole crop on the market at one time, 

 and there is a glut." J. S. Lapham, of Delaware, de- 

 scribes the disastrous season of 1903:^ "Eariy berries, 

 cut off in large proportion by the frosts, bloomed again. 

 Helped on by rains, which at last came, they yielded 

 heavily with the Gandy, our standard late berry. This 

 semi-second crop, maturing out of its proper season, was 

 dumped upon the dealers when there was not a thing 

 they could do with it. The railroads, unprepared for 

 this emergency, quickly exhausted their stock of refriger- 

 ator cars and also made late deliveries. Ventilator cars 

 filled with this fruit were dumped upon the market and 



» Proc. Fla. State Hort. Soc, 1897, pp. 107-11. 

 ' Rept. Peninsula Hort. Soc, 1904, p. 61. 



