The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-23
WHERE EARLY BERRIES GROW.
The First that the West Gets Come
from Louisiana.
sslie's weekly.

Leslie's Weekly.
TO cater to a fastidous Northern de-
mand new industry has sprung up in the
South and the impoverished sand of the
''piney woods of Louisiana has been
nursed into fresh fertility to grow the
straw berry for the great markets that have
their chief distributing depot on Lake Mich
igan.
The East draws it's supply of early ber-
rfes from Florida and points north of it.
The West is supplied from Louisiana. Ham
mond a scattered village emerging from a
long doze of inactivty-just on the north
ernmost boundary of the great swamp that
girts New Orleans about-is the first to
send its berries to Chicago. Here the
rheumatic and asthmatic Northerner came
to breathe the balsam of the pine woods,
noted the fecundity of the soil under intel
ligent tillage, studied the seasons of unin-
terrupted sunshine and set out strawberry
plants among the tall and tapering pines.
Now the little station ships something like
fifteen thousand cases of the berries north
between February and July.
The dense pine woods encroach on the
town on all sides. Narrow, horribly con-
structed lanes that can scarcely be dignitied
by the title of roads, creep into view
In all directions. Driving along in the semi
gloom of the brush the explorer unexpect-
edly comes upon a I'VE or ten-acre clear
the owner. with passion vine clambering
over the porch and roses and cape jassa-
mine running riot under the windows. Usu-
ally the house Il set down in an orchard of
pear and peach and japanese plum trees,
and beyond is the universal berry patch ev-
owner will tell you, he came here from Con-
necticut or New York. or Michigan or Iowa,
paid so or $40 an acre for his land, then
denseIy covered with pine as is the sur
rounding forest cleared q place for his
four or seven hundred-dollar cottage, and
then cut off the rest of his timber, burned
or pulled the stumps, and put his pillow into
the soil. The year-old seeding trees he
planted are bearing fruit, his berries sup
ply all the family needs, and he will protest
that the summer heats are not so oppreS-
sive as in his Northern home, while the
Octobers Novembers, Decembers, Janua-
aries and FebruarieS are concrete sections
The plants are set in November in
ground that has been carefully cultivated
of commercial fertilizers They begin bear
ing in February, when the ambitious picker
seeks out the ripe fruit most industriously,
for the market price scars up to the tempt
ing quotation of so per case of twelve
quarts. From then on, by swifter or slower
degrees, the market value drops to $3.50
and 81 per case The pint boxes in which
the berries go forward cost, with the case
in which twenty-four of them are stored,
about a cent apiece knocked down, or a
cent and third made up. The express rate
from Hammond to Chcago-approXima
$50 mies-is $3.50 per hundred pounds, or
about AZ cents per case. In refrigerator
cars 1t costs 20 cents a case more.
The picking season, which is at its height
in March and April, lis the busy time for the
grower and a dozen annoyances fill him
with VeXation. Everybody picks berries,
and happy is the man with large family
whose labor can be utilized. But carpenters
throw down their tools and servant girls
leave the employment to pursue the occu-
patton, which must offer some occult fas-
cination, for it is certainly not temptingly
remunerative. The grower pays a cent a
pint for the picking, and the occupation
lasts only from O'Clock in the morning I'M
I'll noon each day The ,pickers earn from
so cents to 81 day, and acquire a 'kink''
in their backs which lasts a good deal
longer than the berry season. In the latter
part of May in June the grower ruth
nnWS under. and
raise a crop of sweet potatoes on the ground
before it is time to put out his new vines.
If he is judicious. however, he will plant a
crop of cow peas cut the tops for fodder,
and piow in what is left for fertilization.