The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1896-10-23
ARKANSAS STRAWBERRIES.
what iiss Been n success In One Section
Might Be Made So in Anotber

Might Be Made So in Another.
While The Arkansas Traveller" has
! given the state uncnviable notoriety
the strawberry has given it fame. OF
late years the Arkansas strawberry has
IN creased its range until it spreads to
eastern as well as western and northern
cities. 1t has become an early spring
aristocrat of the breakfast and dinner
table. 1t has competitors but no rivals.
Other sections of the South produce
early Strawberries of excellent quality
and large size, but they are not rivals
they lack color and exquisite flavor to
be classed with the choice products of
Arkansas AT present Crawford county
has the lead in strawberry production.
though other sections produce as good
berries and as many bushels to the acre.
Crawford county has the lead simply
because strawberry culture by APP
proved methods began there in advance
of other counties. Van Buren, is the
champion shipping point for strawber-
ries. The cash receipts for berries at
that place in the picking and shipping
season amount to S12. 900 a day. The
Dally Press, newspaper published at
Little Rock, in an article on the SUBJ
Ject last season said: IF any little city
like Van Buren, was shipping that
amount of cotton daily during the cot
ton season ($l2,00 worth per day), it
would be heralded far and wide, and
the song of King Cotton would echo
from every hill top within 100 miles.
And yet crop which gives fifty times
the profit per acre that cotton does to
the grower, is being harvested and sent
north at the rate of five to eight car
loads per day, and hardly mention of
il is made.
The men at Van Buren, now engaged
IN berry-growing were, a few years
ago, working '1S months every year
to produce crop that exhausted the
SOIL, wore out their farm stock and inn
PIGMENTS, and made their lives one
round of unrequited drudgery. Har-
raised with debts from years end to
years end; crops and their own lives
mortgaged months in advance; children
growing up in ignorance and broken
down with severe toll before they
reached their majority, such is the true
and everyday picture of the cotton
farmer. But these strawberry growers,
prominent among whom we would
mention F. III. S. Smelzer, j. A. Camp
bell, James Stephenson, John Bryan
and Phil ID. Scott, are to-day escaped
from bondage, like many others of their
ghbors. And instead of debts and
doubts, the present is joyous and the
rainbow of the future is tinted a bright
trawberry hue. Their children are in
school the term through, their labors
are neither onerous nor exhausting,
they have money in the bank, bank
and building association stock, real es-
tate in town, and making a net profit
OF 800 and $3.50 per acre. Five to eight
years ago they were regarded as poor
men; to-day they are worth $40, 900 to
$40 900, and in a position to accumulate
at constantly increasing and rapid
rate.
THE day The Press representative
visited them he talked with Mr. j. NJ.
Dean, who had a little patch of one and
half acres at his home, and away from
his main crop His first shipment was
on Friday, April 2S, and consisted of
seven crates, for which he received
s2s.91 after all expense of shipping and
commission was paid. The five follow
ing shipments of nine crates will net
him $40 or more each. This from one
and a half acres, and yet the season
had but fairly begun. This is but a
sample case of the berry shipments.
And all around in that part of the
state, just such land, which, under the
same management, will produce the
same results, can be purchased for S.
to $50 per acre"
1t may be noted here that there are
many other parts of the state as well
suited to strawberry, raspberry and
black berry culture as that near Van
Buren,; and in some of these districts
this business has received as much at
tention as there, and the daily ship
ments are enormous, during the pick
ing season. Jackson, White, Pulaski,
Saline, Hot Spring, Clark, Nevada,
Hampstead, Miller, Crawford, Sebas-
tian, Franklin, johnson, Pope, Conway
and Faulkner counties, are all in the
straw berry belt and have excellent
| shipping facilities There are oppor-
tunities and fortunes for plenty of
growers yet; and these counties will, in
the near future, be turning out an ag
gregate of from 1900 to ., 900 car loads
of our matchless berries per annum.