The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-19
A DAY WITH COLONlsTs
The History of the Settlement by It's
Founder and Promoter.
A LESSON THE STATE MIGHT LEARN
Our Development ard Progress Lies in The
Chadbourn Way and Others Can Accom-
plsh With Profit What Senator
Brown Has Done.
Brown Has Done.

THE race is neither to the swift nor
the battle to the strong; but time and
chance cometh to ALL"
Just where I'd read this ancient proverb
could not say, but it kept running
through mv head as we drove along the
level road looking at we'll titled acres,
neat farm houses, bronzed-fa men and
throngs of berry pickers. For you must
know we were in the heart of the Yankee
Colony at Chadbourn, the greatest
strawberry growing section in this eoun-
try and State Senator j. A. Brown. the
man above all others responsible for its
establishment and present prosperity,
was my companion.
The berry picking and berry shipping
season is at its height, and from one end
of the colony to the other, seven miles
away, there is not an idle man, woman
or child-out- of arms; for these folk are
toilers. Thousands are abroad in the
berry fields, picking, packing and haul
ing to the station where the berries are
either sold outright to commission men
upon the platform or shipped in refrig-
orator ears to northern markets
It's busy scene-the like of which one
will seldom witness in a strictly agrieul-
tural community: and it is worth a mo-
ment's study
The one hotel and the many boarding
houses in the little town are crowded to
their utmost capacity with the berry buy
resented. Private quotations and instruc-
tions keep the telegraph wires and five
operators busy, while a young army of
clerks are required in the shipping de-
partment. score of negroes are work
ing all day and far into the night putting
the huge blocks Of ice into refrigerator
cars that are constantly rolled upon the
long sidetracks and as constantly rolled
away filled with tempting red fruit
The eve of day is scarcely open before
the rumble of berry-laden wagons and
carts awakes you, and almost Immediate
ly the stir OF business life begins, for
this is no time and place for late sleep
ing. Other wagons come in, the chant of
negro voices in a neighboring berry-feld
swells and falls upon the morning air.
Already the buyers throng the platform
bidding greedily for the first few crates,
while the farmer holds off ito hear from
the market" 1t may be much higher than
the price offered him; it may be much
lower, but generally he's willing to take
chances.
As the day wears on the crowd swells,
the activity increases, the roads are fill
cd with vehicles and dust while the neigh
boring pine grove looks not unlike an
army with many horses had encamped
there. The long platform is piled with
crates. and negroes stripped to the waist
are loading cars. The market has been
heard from and commission men are now
buying rapidly direct from the shipper
other berry raisers prefer to take their
chances on the northern market, and Sc
are shipping on their own account. Good
feeling prevails and all stand on the same
footing-the man with a bull yearling
and one or two crates in his cart and he
of prosperous air with spanking pair and
high piled wagon.
Here one buyer sits on a box with bag
of MONEY between his knees paying out
large amounts, yonder one gives checks,
and there one issues little due-bills that
are honored later in the day. On this par
ticular day berries are selling for 81 and
1926 a crate, and over $4,000 changed
hands upon the platform. This amount
represents the berries sold upon the spot
and does not include those shipped by
growers en- their own account.
Now let us return to the farms again
and see what sort of people these be-.
We have seen them bring their products
10 market in the early morning hours,
witnessed their shrewdness in bargain
and beheld them as they went away with
huge rolls of bills. What manner OF folk
are they? Let us go among them.
Here is one from Norfolk. He has out
thirty-five pickers this morning. HIS
strawberry field is sandwiched between
cabbage field and dewberry field. The
cabbage crop is now being shipped and
will be profitable for many weeks yet and
The dewberry crop will come on imme-
diately after the strawberry crop, ne ex-
plains. His farm is enclosed By neat
fences, every foot of his land is drained
and improved and in the centre of it is
a pleasant cottage home.
On the road we pass a portly side
whiskered Englishman. He and his
brother came here from London. Mr..
Brown tells me, and adds that they are
very successful.
little further on we encounter an ell
derby man in a handsome turnout. He
commented my companion, came here
from Minnesota with $4,000 and he's got
every cent of it and more, too.
But over there and he pointed to
neglected looking place, elves a man
who had 81 900 when he came here and
he's lost it all. So YOU see there's
sometimes another side to the story
"And whose place is that asked as
we passed field with hundred or more
berry pickers in it, That" he replied,
belongs to an Iowa man. He came here
with little besides large family He has
done remarkably we'll. He has sent his
daughters to the State Normal College
and he is one of the best men in the en-
tire colony One of the young ladies there
packing berries is graduate and
charming and popular young woman,