Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-08-20
Wholesale IIuckIeberrying.


Talking about le big corn crops of
the United States calls to mind that
corn is native American grain. It
is well that it should become the fore
most of the farm products, and per-
haps no other resource of the new
world has done so much to create the
enormous wealth that has been ac-
cumulated in this country. But the
corn crop is not the only one pro-
duced in abundance In the uplands
of Pennsylvania this year a crop is
falling to waste which could supply
the wants in its line of every inhabit-
ant within the bounds of tie Common
wealth. Blackberrles ripen in some
counties in Pennsylvania, not in little
patches measured by rods ar acres, but
by miles. Huckleberries color in
tracts as big as townships Tons of
both kinds of berries are gathered,
many for market, many for home use,
but the quantities saved are as nothing
to the vast quantities left 20 fall to the
ground.
The home of the wild berry is in the
open spaces on the mountain, where
timber has stood at one time, or where
the barrens afford room for the bushes
The backbone of the Allegheny
mountains in some sections has bar
rens that run for miles, and these are
covered with a very scant growth of
yellow pine, and a denser mantle of
sweet fern and huckleberry bushes.
In such cases where settlements are
close to the barrens, picking buckle
berries for market affords employ
ment to the people in season, and many
country merchant takes in berries
and gives out merchandise in return
in such quantity as to provide por-
tion of the population with the big end
of the seasons earnings. Tons of
huckleberrles find their way to the
markets of the big cities, and the en-
tire huckleberry product that is sold
is the free Offering of Nature. The
huckleberry is not cultivated, like
most of the other berries. The pick
ers go to THE mountain in crowds, and
sometimes they camp out for days be-
fore returning home. Places that are
favored with some grazing facilities,
where horses may be kept and where
Uafar is aaeV Of anna-c and uroOd 10 10
be lad for cooking victuals, may be
the camp of 200 or 300 persons at a
time in huckleberry season. From the
camp as the center the pickers work,
Gay after day, securing the ridges
maybe for a half dozen miles, bring
ing their plumber back to the wagons,
at the camp, where buckets, boxes,
tubs and everything that will hold
berries are filled. Many family liv-
ing in the country within Is or 20
miles of the huckleberry mountain ex-
poets to gather two or three busnels OF
the summers yield for immediate con-
sumption or for canning for winter
| anu OllS VI Int tOilIIllOHeSl SlBnIS al
this season of the year is the caravans
of Iberry-pickers on their way to or
from the mountains. In some sections
of the state berry-pickers go 40 or sc
miles to get to the berry country and
often they go in crowds, several wag-
ons in train. Men, women and child
rem go with the delegation, and the
trip is regarded both as a business ex-
pedition and a holiday.
1t seems That huckleberries and rat
tlesnakes have something in common
for in nearly every huckleberry terri
tory rattlesnakes abound. But the rat
tlesnake is more dangerous in stories
than he is in the mountains, and he i;
as eager to escape his human enemy
as the enemy is to see him go. While
many snakes are killed. it is not com
mon to hear of bite from one OF
Them. A hearty rattlesnake can cause
death, but a majority of the bites are
NOT fatal.-Pittsburg Times.